Tales of Cometfall, featuring Smellerbee
by BIG410
Summary: In part 4 of the anthology branching from the timeline of the postCoD epic: Cometfall.  Jet is dead, and Long Feng is going to pay, but will the price of Smellerbee's revenge cost her something greater then her own life? Now: Smellerbee, the Assassin!
1. Zei, the Scholar

_Cometfall. The name given to the day that Sozin's Comet returns, the deadline for the life of a world._

_The fall of Ba Sing Se marked the beginning of the end of the Fire Nation War, and while the fate of millions rested in the hands of five children, there were others who had their own parts to play. For right or wrong, for peace or for war, for today or for tomorrow, these are their stories._

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Zei, the Scholar

Chapter 2: Suki, the Prisoner

Chapter 3: The Cabbage Merchant, the Cabbage Merchant

Chapter 4: Smellerbee, the Assassin

Chapter 1

Tales of Cometfall: Zei, the Scholar

Seven Weeks Before Cometfall

Professor Zei still could not believe how lucky he was. Sure, he was buried alive, but he was buried alive in the single greatest storehouse of information in two worlds. When Wan Shi Tong decided to sink his library under the sands of the Si Wong Desert, Zei decided to stay inside and he had no regrets.

_Sure it was difficult at first,_ he thought, _I had to burn everything I had to give me enough light to read: my blank workbooks, my shirt, my bag, even my shoes, but after a while my eyes adjusted to the light, such as it was. At least I've even gotten used to sitting on the floor, now it feels soft under my bare feet, I'm not even cold._

The professor, after reading his initial selections, wandered the nearly endless halls pulling any scroll or book that caught his eye. He moved from row to row, stack to stack, absorbing information faster then he ever had before. There were no distractions now, no pursuit but that of understanding.

"You've taken the phrase, 'knowledge is its own reward' unusually far for…a human." Wan Shi Tong announced, creeping up on the professor like a shadow, his deep voice ringing thought the cavernous hallways. It was the first time Zei had seen the Owl Spirit since the Avatar's friends abused its trust and were forced to flee.

"Great Spirit, please accept my apologies, I could not abandon this treasure."

"Your dedication to your craft is admirable, and it has left an…impression. Come, I want to show you two things," Wan Shi Tong flapped his wings once, used the lift generated to turn himself around, and began to plod off. Zei pulled his nose out the book he was reading, about some event called The Sundering, and toddled after him.

They walked for what seemed like hours, as if the library had become bigger somehow. Wan Shi Tong stooped to enter a room Zei he hadn't visited yet. It was filled with artifacts: urns, paintings, weapons; items from all four corners of the world. The Spirit of Knowledge stopped between a model of a Fire Nation temple and what looked like the plans for a palace. Wan Shi Tong suddenly bent himself unnaturally and stuck a single talon into a wall. When he pulled it out, the claw was left behind. A replacement folded out of his body instantly.

"You remember this?" He asked, pulling out a twist of rope shaped like a butterdragonfly from the infinite space contained within him.

"Yes, yes. It's Sokka's special knot."

"Correct," the sprit then hung the knot on the wall and stared at it, the black slits that outlined his eyes narrowed, "I am known as The One Who Knows Ten Thousand Things, and yet this simple item is new to me. Can you explain that?"

"I…I" the professor was flustered; _is the smartest thing in two worlds asking me a question?_

"The reason that I transported my library to…_your_ world is that despite how mundane it appears, it is always advancing, always creating new knowledge and new ideas. While in the world of the spirits any change is both rare and dangerous. So rash decisions require…reconsidering and you are going to help me." With that, the great owl continued down the long artifacts room. Zei followed. "I have decided to change my mind. I am going to return my library to the surface of the mortal world, and continue my work."

Zei felt a twinge of hope in spite of himself. Only in his darkest moments did he regret his decision to stay and be buried alive. Now distracted from the Spirit, Zei could see the outline of a Knowledge Seeker, a creature that resembled a fox, walking towards them.

"And you are going to help me," Wan Shi Tong continued.

"I'd be honored to help in any way I can Great Spirit, just tell me what I can do?" Zei asked, now looking forward to seeing the sun again. The fox drew closer.

"I appreciate the enthusiasm, but there is no need to hurry. I feel that it would be wise to wait some time first, not too long, just enough time so that this place passes back into legend, let's say…a hundred years."

Zei went cold and stopped dead in his tracks, right in front of the fox, "but great spirit, a hundred years? I'm not going to…you understand that I'm not…"

"You'll be fine, professor," the Master of the Spirit Library again bent himself to stick a talon forward and Zei was stunned to see it stopped by an invisible force.

_No, not invisible, glass…no, I see it now, it's a mirror._ Zei snapped his head forward. _It wasn't just a fox, it was him, _"How?" he tried to say, but only the soft barks of a fox came from his elongated mouth.

"Yes, you're going to work out just fine"


	2. Suki, the Prisoner

(Author's note: Suki's story contains scenes that might be too intense for some readers, discretion is advised)

_Cometfall. The name given to the day that Sozin's Comet returns, the deadline for the life of a world. _

_The fall of Ba Sing Se marked the beginning of the end of the Fire Nation War, and while the fate of millions rested in the hands of five children, there were others who had their own parts to play. For right or wrong, for peace or for war, for today or for tomorrow, these are their stories._

**Tales of Cometfall: Suki, the Prisoner**

**Three Months and Two Weeks Before Cometfall**

"Don't you know fans just make flames stronger?" the golden eyed Firebender sniped before launching another of her scorching blue flames that Suki barely dodged by stepping back and to one side. Suki then dashed forward towards her attacker. _If I don't close the distance between us, _she thought_, I'm history._ The Firebender girl tired to stab Suki downward with a right hand covered in flame, but Suki blocked the attack at the wrist with her left arm and then smacked her across her face with the hilt of the fan in her right hand.

The Firebender, far from being disoriented or even caught of balance by the attack, rolled from the blow of the fan hilt and turned completely around, ducked down and swept the legs out from under Suki. Landing hard on her back, Suki opened her eyes just in time to see a blue flaming boot coming down at her face. Rolling backwards again and again to avoid being stomped, she could see that she was about to be pinned between her attacker and the burning log that blocked the path. Just before contacting it Suki attempted to bring the Firebender down by rolling up on her support leg while her other leg was up, but the Firebender anticipated that, leapt off the ground, and let Suki pass underneath her.

_She's good…what did that lanky one call her? Azula? _Suki tried to rise to her feet, but the Firebender was waiting for her, kicked her in the chest and sending Suki sprawling, _and fast_, she finished. _I have to keep this going for as long as I can, _she thought, considering defeat for the first time in her life, _Appa has to get away and back to Aang. That's all that matters. _Suki cartwheeled backwards and onto her feet Holding her two metal fans open and near her face, see looked out at the situation.

She was shocked to see that the other Fire Nation warriors had disabled the other warriors in her unit. Some were pinned to trees with small knives, others lay on the ground twitching in pain, and the rest lay unmoving. _If they are dead_, she thought, _someone's going to pay for it_. Suki tightened her grip until her fingers hurt then dashed forwards, holding one fan horizontally and in line with the Firebender's neck.

Suki's attack was avoided easily, but that was the idea. When Azula dodged left, Suki swung her left leg out, knocking her opponent's knees out from under her. Falling back with her victim, Suki lined her left elbow with the Azula's neck and barely missed crushing her windpipe.

On the ground, side by side, Suki brought her other hand around and with a special squeeze of the fan's handle, released two thin stabbing blades from each of the montures. Azula caught Suki's arm and they began to struggle with Azula pushing up and Suki pushing the bladed fan down and into her opponent's face. The pair motionlessly pushed against each other for some time until a blasé voice called out, sounding indifferent to the life or death struggle going on in front of her.

"We don't have time for this, we've lost track of that flying bear-raccoon thing,"

"Yeah, Azula, do we have to spend anymore time with these ugly girls? They weren't pleasant to be near before and now they are no fun at all."

"Fine," Azula grunted.

Suki saw Azula take her eyes off the blades and lock on to hers, the Firebender then took a deep breath, and after shooting a little steam out of her nose, blew a powerful gust of hot air and blue flame. Suki was just able to disengage from her attack and cover her face with her arms as the blast pushed her off her opponent and flat on her back.

Before Suki could recover, Azula was on her feet and on top of her. Azula grabbed Suki tightly by the neck and first pulled her to her feet, then while choking the breathless Kyoshi Warrior, pushed her against a nearby tree.

Suki felt her world grow dark as Azula pinched her throat closed for a moment, then called out in pain as Azula pinned one of her hands against the tree with the blades her own fan. Suki grunted and struggled to remain conscious against the blinding pain coming from her hand. She tried to reach over with her left arm, but any movement caused the blades to dig into her palm painfully.

She watched Azula scan the sky while holding her by the neck, "It's gone." She then looked at Suki, her gold eyes looking as cold as their eponymous metal. "You've cost me dearly little girl," Azula said as she tightened her choke hold, "and you're going to have to pay a price."

As her air ran out, Suki watched her apparent killer look her up and down and held one last thought in her head, _Appa got away, Appa got away, Appa got away…_

"No," Suki heard as she felt both the grip of Azula and the blades of her own fan release her. Suki slipped down the trunk of the tree and landed hard on the ground choking for breath. "No, I'm not done with you yet I think," Azula continued, now crouching in front of her, holding the bladed fan against Suki's throat, "I think there's one way you can make up for daring to interfere with me." Azula then ran the edge of the blade over Suki's face, shaving a swatch of her white face paint off, "You're going to tell me everything you know about your gaudy little team here...and about the security of Ba Sing Se."

Suki struggled to find her voice again, coughing and wheezing, finally growling out a singe word: "Never." Azula then punched her across the face.

"Ignorant little peasant warrior!" She spat, before changing her voice to a cloying tone. "You misunderstand, all I want you to do is point a few things out for me, it's easy, watch." Azula then turned to her companions who had been collecting the other Kyoshi Warriors. They had moved them into one group and began securing those who were not otherwise incapacitated. "Mai, be a dear and point a few things out for one of this girl's friends.

Mai looked stunned for a moment, then a thin smile appeared on her lips. With one motion, she launched three needles from the spring-loaded holster on her wrist into the exposed ankle of Suki's second-in-command, Koko. Koko yelped in pain and struggled against the ropes that held her fast to a wide tree. Mai's smile grew.

"You see, we just want to share," Azula said coldly.

"Don't tell her anything!" Koko gritted out, Mai responded by slapping her across the face, leaving three streaks of blood on her face where Mai's sharpened nails cut. The red of her blood seemed to glow against her painted white face.

"A-Azula…" Ty Lee sounded nervous.

"What is it?" Azula responded, Suki watched to talk to her friend without looking at her.

"We…we won, why are you doing this?"

"Don't you mean 'why are _we_' doing this? Unless you don't count me among your friends anymore, is that true Ty Lee?"

"No! No, of course not Azula, but it's just that why are…we, staying around here and doing…this?"

"Naive little girl," Azula muttered to Suki before addressing Ty Lee, "We're at war, in case you haven't noticed, and have been so for our entire lives. This one understands it, don't you?" Azula grabbed Suki injured hand and squeezed it until she grunted in pain and then let go, satisfied with just being acknowledged, "Now these worthless foot solders have only a tiny bit of knowledge that the Fire Nations needs, and we're going to get it. Do you understand?"

"Yes," She replied.

"Now imagine if the situation was reversed, and by some cosmic catastrophe we were rendered powerless _by them_. Tell me, what could they want from two Fire Nation nobles and the true heir to the throne of the Fire Nation? What would they do to _us_ to get _us_ to talk?"

Suki broke the gaze of Azula and struggled to move to look at the pink-clad girl. Ty Lee was clutching her hands to her chest and when she looked down at Suki, she did so with a look first of fear, then of a spiteful anger at the terrible things that Suki would have never done to her. _No, _Suki thought_, I'm not like them, I'm not a monster, _but it was too late.

"You!" She spat, "You tell Azula what she wants to know, or." Ty Lee rolled forward and leaned in next to Koko, pressing two fingers to the captive's neck, behind her ear, "Or your friend will need someone else to brush her hideous hair for the rest of her life."

"Stop," Suki grunted, "I'll tell you what you want to know."

"I knew you would," Azula then grabbed Suki off of the ground and spun her around, pushing her against the same tree, and twisted her injured hand up behind her back.

"It will never work, they will never let you close to the Earth King, and the Avatar would stop you if you tried."

"That's not your problem anymore. You live now only if you make yourself useful to me. Now talk."

Suki told them everything she knew about her unit about how the flow of refugees and soldiers into the city worked and was painfully persuaded to share what her relationship with the Avatar and his companions was. When she hesitated to describe Sokka, Ty Lee sussed out the reason, and after she nearly beat another member of her unit into unconsciousness, Suki was forced to share.

_I'm sorry Aang…Sokka_, Suki thought, humiliated, but it didn't last. Ty Lee struck her once on the temple and Suki's world went black.

**Three Months Before Cometfall**

Suki had no idea how long she and the other warriors were held in that cramped cabin on Azula's mechanical carriage. She tried not to think of what the Fire Nation Princess was doing with the information she had given her, or with the uniforms they had taken from her and two others. She didn't want to think about that or why they weren't sent back behind Fire Nation lines to a prison camp, and she especially didn't want to think that each time the guard locked the door after throwing them food, they wouldn't be left in darkness to starve.

Suki instead focused on keeping her unit's sprits up, _they are my responsibility, _she thought_, and they are here because of me._ So it felt like a cruel joke when she was separated from them. Every couple of hours the guard would reappear and take one of them with out a word. One by one they were removed until Suki was alone. She sat in the darkness, trying to push the thought that she would never see them again out of her mind. _No, they wouldn't just kill them, that would be…madness, _she thoughtremembering the cold look on Azula's face and she interrogated her in the forest,_ no, they are alive, and we are all going to get out of this. _

Hours later, the guard opened the door and motioned for Suki to exit. Suki stood up, gingerly leaning on her good hand, and walked forward, blinking against the light. She took a step over the door's bulkhead and thought: _now or never_.

Pretending to stumble, the guard instinctively leaned in to catch her, and Suki used the moment he was off-balance to give his momentum a helping hand and toss the guard into the cell. Suki slammed the door closed and spun the handle to lock it. She looked around and saw a small hallway leading forward with many cabin doors along either side and a narrow path to her left with a door just a few feet away.

_Which way?_ Suki chose the sorter path and held her ear up to the door to try to hear what was on the other side, but the noise that the mechanical wagon made was only amplified by the cold metal. _Do I risk it?_ It was then that she heard the guard she tricked yelling from inside the cell. _No time to think it over_, she thought, spinning the handle of the door. She was met by a rush of fresh air…and a three-foot drop. Suki struggled to retain her balance, but she had pushed on the door too hard and fell off the carriage, landing on her chest with a thud.

This had alerted the twenty Royal Guards who were camped out next to the carriage, who were on top of her in an instant. One of them held an armored knee to the back of her neck while another bound her hands behind her back. She was sarcastically complemented on her escape attempt while being dragged into a non-descript ostrichhorse-drawn wagon, gagged, and having a burlap bag pulled over her head.

When the wagon began moving, Suki struggled to figure out where she was going by listening for some clue. It was hours before some kind of intelligible sounds could be heard. People, thousands of them all talking at once, animals squawking, other wagons creaking…_Ba Sing Se_, she realized, _it has to be, nowhere else are there this many people, but why are they taking me here, and doesn't anyone realize that the driver is Fire Nation? Who is watching the city? No,_ she decided,_ it's a trick. This can't be the capitol._

The noise quieted significantly before the carriage stopped; the driver pulled Suki out and pushed her by the back of the neck. She could tell from the amount of light coming through the bag that she was now inside. After a few minutes, she heard a heavy metal door open, and then the world reappeared before her eyes as the bag was removed.

She was at the top of a set of metal stairs lit by a single dim torch. Cold, foul air wafted up from the bottom, _a dungeon_, she realized. At the base of the stars was a long stretch of cells branching off in three directions. Suki was pushed forward, past a broken cell door that looked like it had been crumpled like a piece of paper and torn from its hinges.

The jailor, another Royal Guard, help open the door to the last cell on the left. Suki's plain-clothes escort pushed her one more time and into the cell as the door slammed behind her.

"This the last one?" The jailer asked.

"Yeah, this one was the leader!"

"She did a great job," The jailer laughed.

"HEY!" Suki shouted, pushing her face up to the narrow window in the door, "WHERE ARE THE REST OF MY…"

The jailer shot a blast of flame back through the window, which Suki narrowly ducked, "No talking!"

Suki slid on her backside up against the far wall of the cell and reminded herself of the one thing that had kept her going to this point: _the Avatar must have his bison back by now. He will be able to end all of this; I just have to hold on._

**Nine Weeks Before Cometfall**

_Twenty-one days_, Suki thought, figuring since they were only feeding her once per day, that she had been in this cell for three weeks now. Suki finished the bowl of watery cabbage soup and half-molded bread and began the routine she had developed to hopefully keep her from going crazy.

She tested her injured hand, tried not to think that she would probably never get full use of it back, then began practicing her Tessenjutsu forms. She started with the routines that she learned as a girl of eight years, and finished hours later with that moves she was practicing the day her world changed. _The day I met the Avatar…the day I met Sokka. _Suki surprised herself that she could still smile when she thought of him, despite the chain of events that could clearly explain her current situation. _I can't…won't blame him, I hope when he finds out what happened he doesn't blame himself either, or risk himself trying to rescue me. _Suki pushed those childish thoughts out of her head. _Sokka has more important things to do. Saving the world is more important then saving one stupid girl who got herself caught._

Suki hung her head, and let her tired arms drop. She lay down on the cold metal cot built into the wall. Putting one arm under her head and, after a time, fell asleep.

She was abruptly awakened by the sound of the door to her cell opening. Coming immediately to full wakefulness Suki stood up and backed away from the door, ready for anything. Into the cell came Princess Azula's two companions. Mai was carring two long knives in each hand; Ty Lee carried nothing but, as as Suki knew, she did not need to.

"See! I told you she was down here!" Ty Lee bubbled.

"You two decide to surrender?" Suki decided to play it tough. _What do I have to lose_

Ty Lee was visibly amused at her boast, Mai face was as porcelain, so firm, it didn't crack when she spoke, "Surrender? No need, the war is over."

_What? _Suki thought, unbelieving, "Oh is it?"

"Yes, and I'm not sorry to say that you lost."

"How stupid do you think I am?"

Mai harrumphed, "Where do you think you are, little girl?" She asked, as Ty Lee giggled. Suki let a look on concern cross her face before Mai continued, "Look around, metal walls, metal floor, metal doors, you're in an Earth Kingdom jail."

"Not just any jail," Ty Lee gigged out, "You're in the dungeon of the Royal Palace!"

"No…" Suki, "That's impossible!"

"Silly girl, what did you think we did with your uniform and what you told us? We entered the Royal Palace and killed the Earth King!"

"I…I don't believe you."

"You want to go see for yourself?" Ty Lee asked.

Suki was stunned to see them part ways and let her walk out of the cell and up out of the dungeon. They followed her closely as she passed though countless halls and corridors. Suki looked around at everything, _I've never been to the palace, no one has, but the walls, the colors, they all look right_. Suki passed hundreds of tapestries, sculptures and vases, all of the finest Earth Kingdom make. Before she knew it she was in a long ornate room that could be no other, and looked up at an enormous golden chair, covered with ornate carvings and backed by a massive golden animal sculpture _The Badgermole Throne_, she thought, stunned, _The Seat of the Earth!_ "This is not possible!"

"Oh it's true alright." Mai intoned, sounding blasé even when presenting evidence of her nation's ultimate victory, "but that's not all." With that Suki felt her whole body go numb. Ty Lee had jabbed at Suki's back with two fingers of each hand, and Suki dropped to the ground like a sack of flour. Suki, who could not only move her eyes watched Mai crouch down in front of her, "We set a trap for the Avatar here, at almost this exact spot…and we killed him, and his friends. That stuck up Waterbender, that dirty little Earthbender, and…"

"That cute Water Tribe boy." Ty Lee finished, "He lasted longer then I thought he would, but it's all over now…thanks to you."

_No, no, no, no, no, this can't be true_. Suki was sure she would have thrown up if she could, or if she has eaten anything of substance lately.

"You're a hero now," Mai said with the driest of sarcasm, "the Fire Nation owes you a great debt. Let's go Ty Lee, and leave our hero to savor her victory."

Suki heard their footsteps fade and Mai give an instruction for her to be carried back to her cell in a few minutes. Suki could do nothing but stare at the throne and sob. _What have I done…_

**Eight Weeks Before Cometfall**

Suki stopped her exercise routine after her visit to the Throne Room. She barely moved off of the cot anymore, and it was only the most basic of instincts that made her eat anything.

So when the guards opened her cell door for only the second time since she'd been in there she docilely followed their directions to change into a pale red prison smock and be moved using the same bagged transfer technique onto a large Fire Navy ship. Suki had no idea where they were taking her, and didn't care.

That night aboard ship she was jolted awake by a small, heavy object that landed on her. She quickly looked towards the door which she was sure had never opened and had no window. _The porthole? _She thought, and moved as quickly as her weakened body could to look out it. A rope dangled down in front of it and Suki stuck just a corner of her head that would fit out the tiny opening and saw a figure in black disappear over the deck railing, then pull a rope up and away.

_Who was that? Someone sneaking around on a Fire Navy ship, throwing things at people?_ It was then she remembered that she was hit by something and moved back to the cot to find a small bundle. She picking it up and was surprised to find it warm and smelling good. _Food?_ She started tearing into what was now clear to be a folded cloth napkin. Inside was a hunk of grilled Moo-Sow and three small potatoes.

_What if this is a trap?_ Suki thought, salivating_. But why would they poison me like this? They could of put it in the same soup I've been eating for who knows how long. Or are they worried that their' prize' prisoner will starve to death before they finish whatever they have planned for me_? Suki's mind raced, and a fraction of a second before she resolved to throw the whole thing out the porthole, she was stuffing her face.She cried as she ate. _I've let so many people down, but I'm going to do something about it. When the moment is right, I'll be ready. This war isn't over as long as I'm alive._

**Four Weeks Before Cometfall**

Suki held each of her bandaged arms with the opposite hand and tried to take her mind of the pain. _The Fire Nation Palace dungeon isn't that different then the Earth Kingdom Palace one, at least I have a window this time,_ she thought looking up at the narrow slit of light a the top of the cell.

Four days ago she had tried to make an escape from off of the gangplank of the Fire Nation ship upon disembarking. Suki was a strong swimmer and as soon as she hit the water was able to get her tied hands in front of her by pulling her legs between her arms, and then undoing the leather tie with her teeth. She had gotten as far as a black sand beach down the coast, but the route inland was blocked by a massive metal wall guarded by a legion of Fire Nation solders. Her pale red prison smock a clear giveaway, she was re-captured and escorted to the dungeon by Mai and Ty Lee themselves.

The pair wasn't happy, and that day started a new game. Ty Lee would numb Suki's arms, Mai would throw darts into her, and they would wait for the feeling to return and see how Suki would react. Afterwards the pair would bandage Suki's wounds and leave. This torture would continue every day with minor variations, and Suki was focused on never giving them the satisfaction of calling out or crying. _They will make a mistake one day, and I'll be ready, _Suki thought_, there is nothing left for me but revenge. _In the meantime, Suki resumed her practice as best she could with her injuries.

One day, however, they didn't show. _Why? _Suki thought_, they haven't forgotten about me, have they?_ Suki then remembered her time aboard the mechanical carriage and the feeling of being abandoned to starve, and for a fraction of a second actually hoped that the pair would return for another round. It was then that the sky grew dark in the middle of the day. Suki strained to see out of her small window, and saw that either night had fallen extremely early or…"An eclipse!" She exclaimed. _It's the Day of the Black Sun, _she thought_, the day that…Sokka told me about_. Suki remembered his plan for a massive Earth Kingdom invasion that was going to happen today because the eclipse would rob Firebenders of their powers.

Suki held out a fantastic hope that suddenly Sokka would appear riding a badgermole through the walls of the Fire Nation Palace and rescue her, and that all of what Mai has said was a lie. Suki strained to hear the approach of the Earth Kingdom forces_, any minute now…any minute now…_

Hours later the eclipse had passed, and Suki resigned herself to the fact that she was alone, that no one knew where she was and that no one was looking anyway. _Time's up_, she thought, _I'll have to end this._

**Three Weeks Before Cometfall**

When Mai and Ty Lee finally appeared again, they weren't alone. A young man with a massive burn over his left eye was with them. _Zuko! _Suki thought_, the Fire Nation Prince! This is it!_

Suki hopped up into a fighting stance, _I have to play this just right, I'm only going to get one shot._

Mai drew some of her blades and spoke, "Now, now little Suki, haven't you learned that it's hopeless? Every time you try to resist and every time, you fail. It's not like your getting any stronger in here, am I right?"

Suki held fast for a moment, and then dropped her guard, hanging her head down. _Draw them in._

"Very good," Mai continued, "as you can see we brought a friend this time and…"

_Now! They are off guard!_ Suki dashed forward at Zuko and was about to deliver a desperate blow to his face when an arm clad in pink snaked out of nowhere and stopped the attack in its place. _NO! I was so close! _She despaired as she collapsed and clutched her side. She shuffled to the back corner of the cell, her knees up to her chest. _I have to try to recover quickly; I might not get another chance like this…or at all._

"That's more like it." Mai turned to face Zuko as Ty Lee hopped about. Mai continued, "Little Suki here is a _fan_ of the Avatar, she's the one that helped us conquer Ba Sing Se," Suki looked up at Mai and wished she could throw daggers with her eyes as easily as she did with her hands, "aren't you? Earth Kingdom dirt worshippers are so weak. Once she served her purpose, Azula let us keep her." Mai leaned in close, Ty Lee stuck her head in as well, "Just between you and me, I think Azula can be a bit of a handful, but she's royalty so what can we do? So every once in a while we play little games down here, don't we?"

Suki looked at Zuko who had the same cold, disdainful look as his sister. Ty Lee started to giggle as she spoke, "Azula she's so smart, and clever, and nice, well not nice-nice, you know what I mean…"

"Really I don't…" Zuko tried to cut her off.

"So anyway, she said, just the other day, after somehow I...well…_we_ really Mai, you did it too, slept though something important, that we, not just I, make sure to include you with us, the next time we paid this place a visit! Azula is _so _smart, did I say that already? Uh…she's so smart I didn't even think she knew that we were coming here at all, but there's no getting anything past her!"

"Azula told us of the murder of your beloved uncle, we told her that we were sorry to have missed it. So she, being _as_ gracious as you _know_ she is, has decided…"

_What is going on here, _Suki thought, _looks like I'm in the middle of some kind of palace squabble__. Good. Let them waste time, I'm close to recovering, I can feel it. _

Mai continued, "…as her want to do, to kill two birds with one stone: allow you to demonstrate your skill for us on one whose usefulness is at an end."

_They are going to kill me, and I'm sitting here like a useless lump. No! It can't end like this!_

"I know what you're think-ing!" Ty Lee said in a sing-song voice to Zuko that clashed badly with the atmosphere, "Don't worry," Ty Lee continued, "Azula said that she would do the exact same things to us if the situations were reversed, so that makes it okay, that's what Azula said, and she is always right!"

_Starved? Tortured? Think again, Pinky. I wouldn't have done anything to you, with the possible exception of not hesitating to kill you in battle if I have the chance._

Suki watched Zuko ignite a large ball of flame in his hand and slowly approached the Earth Kingdom girl. Suki strained to move her arms, and searched for a way out with her eyes. Zuko then spread the flame out, whirling it around the tiny cell, _he's staring at me_, Suki noticed,_ but there's no malice in his eyes. Well, at least not his right one,_ Suki surprised herself with her sudden gallows humor.

She couldn't help but flinch each time the fire drew close before he pulled the fire into both hands and…allowed it to dissipate inches from Suki's body. _I'm alive?_

"No," Zuko said, dropping his hands.

"You're not going to do it?" Ty Lee sounded very disappointed. "Azula was right, _again_," she sighed, "You haven't really changed."

"What a bore," Mai added, flatly. "Showing such weakness to the enemy makes me wonder where your loyalties lay."

Zuko turned away from Suki to face the pair. "Mai," he said.

Suki, not knowing whom to thank for her late arriving luck, slid up the wall to her feet and prepared to strike the Prince wile his back was turned.

Intoning anger, Zuko continued, "Before I killed him, one thing I learned from that fossil is that to _never_ confuse wisdom…" Zuko then spun around and struck Suki on the side of her head with full force. Suki was caught totally off guard, and fell to the ground, colliding awkwardly with the metal cot. Her world went dark.

Suki awoke hours later to a bleeding temple, and a single thought: _those eyes. _Even though the prince cracked her across the face, there was something in his eyes while he was manipulating that fire. Almost a pleading look. _Was he trying to tell me something?_

She held a corner of her smock to her head to try to stop the bleeding. When she started to feel a bit dizzy she leaned on the wall, but did so with her injured hand and putting just a little weight on it caused her to gasp in pain. She pulled her hand back and looked at it angrily. _You're falling apart._ She then noticed that her hand was all black, covered in soot. Suki looked at the wall of her cell and saw that the point she rested her hand on was part of a line, a curved line. She followed it with her whole head: it was a spiral drawn in soot, and it wasn't alone. There where two more.

_Three spirals_, she thought, _the symbol of the Air Nomads! Aang! _Was what Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation trying to tell her was that Aang was alive? Suki felt weak and plopped down onto the cot. _It must be. Aang is alive, and he's working with Zuko! Mai was lying…that means they could all be alive: the Earth King, Toph, Katara, and…Sokka._

Suki stood up straight and assumed the first pose of her martial form. The feelings of pain, fear, guilt and anger were gone. She now felt something she hadn't felt in months: Hope.

* * *

Suki's ultimate fate is determined in the pages of _Cometfall's chapter one: Sokka, the Warrior. _


	3. Cabbage Merchant, The Cabbage Merchant

_Cometfall. The name given to the day that Sozin's Comet returns, the deadline for the life of a world. _

_The fall of Ba Sing Se marked the beginning of the end of the Fire Nation War, and while the fate of millions rested in the hands of five children, there were others who had their own parts to play. For right or wrong, for peace or for war, for today or for tomorrow, these are their stories._

**Tales of Cometfall:** The Cabbage Merchant, the…uhhhh…Cabbage Merchant

**Eight Months Before Cometfall**

"MY CABBAGES!"

**Six Months Before Cometfall**

"MY CABBAGES!"

**Four Months Before Cometfall**

"MY CABBAGES!"

**Fourteen Weeks Before Cometfall**

"MY CABBA…aw forget it…" the long-suffering cabbage merchant turned his back on the ravenous rabbitroo that seemed to appear out of nowhere. _Another bushel lost, _he thought as he wandered aimlessly away from his cart, his cabbages, and his life's work. _I'll bet that bald kid had something to do with this, he's been following me around since Omashsu, he must be a rival grower…well whoever he is, I've had it. What I need now is…_

"…And that old king, not only lets him off, but throws him a banquet! If you ask me he's a few seeds short of a garden," the cabbage merchant mumbled out while resting his chin on the bar. The clay cup of strong drink sloshed around with his every word.

The bartender stood over him, passionately disinterested, wiping the inside of another clay cup idly with his eyes on his establishment. Business had been good for him, while no one spoke about why. The Fire Nation War had created massive numbers of refugees, flooding the city. People who lose their land and the livelihood become desperate, and desperate people are thirsty people. Even now, in the middle of the day, the bar was crowded. Patrons struggled to push past each other, starting small scrapes while others sat by small tables and in stone booths tapping their feet to the sound of the talented Zuki horn player who he'd let set up shop in the corner.

"…and what did they serve?" the cabbage merchant continued, "_Lettuce_. No wonder my hair's turned gray, were they _trying_ to make me ill? And guess what happened the very next day, that SAME KID crushes my cart again, and this time…the KING is with him! It was bad enough that I was out three loads of cabbages, that I had to pay to replace mind you, but it kept happening again and again, in fact it's happening right now just up the street! And now that that crop's gone too," the cabbage merchant stood to give a toast, "Anyone want to buy a cabbage cart? I'm flat broke!" With that the cabbage merchant moved to take a huge drink only to have the suddenly attentive bartender swipe the broke man's unpaid for drink away at the last moment, "MY COCKTAIL!" he exclaimed before thudding his head against the bar.

"Sorry buddy, I've got kids to feed," the bartender empathized, placing the cup on a wooden shelf behind him.

"I'll pay for him," a soft, female voice called from the side. Two fingers of a thin hand slid two brass coins down the length of the bar. The bartended quickly scooped them up and in the same motion delivered the drink back to the table. Rubbing his new acquired income together, he left the new couple alone.

"You say you are a merchant?" she asked.

"So what if I…" the cabbage merchant complained. Even though he now had his drink, he was still angry and turned to look at his inquisitor/benefactor. She was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. Her gray eyes looked like bright stars against her hair, which was colored the blackest shade of night. Her face, while it had seen the blaze of the sun often, radiated a glow like the finest of pottery. Her nose: perfect, lips: perfect, ears: perfect…lips: perfect, "…am. Yes, I am, of course I am." He stumbled out to try to recover his position.

"And you are a farmer, a cabbage farmer?"

He'd be anything she wanted him to be, "Yeah."

"And you have a cart, is it fast?"

The cabbage merchant swelled with pride, "People tell me I move from town to town faster than a Flying Bison…whatever that is."

"I need your help," a nervous, worried look came across the woman's face, "I can pay you."

"Illdoitforfree," he blurted out unintelligibly before remembering he was both cabbage-less and broke.

"What?"

"Uhhh…I'll…uhhh…I said, 'I'll do it for a fee'. I'll help money for you; I mean…I'll do _you_ for _money_…WAIT! I meant: I will _help_ you _for_ money…wait! No…that was it, that last one."

The woman looked tense and looked away for a moment, "My Father is a farmer as well. He has a large farm to the east, but he's old and tired, and when the mill broke down he sent me here to buy new parts…" She started to trail off, as if thinking about her father was too difficult, "…but the box of parts is very heavy and when my ostrichhorse died I had no way of getting it out of the city. You're a traveler, you have experience moving things in and out of cities, can you help me?" She finished with a wipe of her misting eyes.

_She needs my help, _the cabbage merchant thought_, and she can help me in turn, so why not? I do need a way to get back on my feet; I can't sit around here forever, but do I really want to get involved in someone else's problems? It would be the right thing to do, the world has become even more dangerous, and we all have to look out for each other. It's what the Avatar would do...but that bald kid is still out there, he could ruin everything…again. I wish there was some kind of sign…_

"Did I mention he grows cabbages the size of elephantkoi?"

"Let's go"

Moments later, they were loading a small, but very heavy for its size, box on the cabbage cart, which the merchant was happy to find not only still there, and still in one piece, but still containing a moderate pile of green, leafy vegetables. Kicking the cart off its blocks, he began pushing it towards the east gate with the woman walking alongside. The cart, despite its heavy load was still perfectly balanced and rolled with ease. _It had better_, the cabbage merchant thought; _I've had to rebuild it so many times. _

They moved in silence as the made their way around the south side of city, towards the East Gate. The woman looked around constantly; _this isn't the safest part of the city_, the cabbage merchant thought_, I'm scared too…no…not scared, nervous, I'd be nervous too, oh come on try to act tough for once, ok? _"Don't worry," He said, trying to sound confident and protective, "Bandits do frequent this area, I'm told, but I can handle it if anything happens."

"I'm sorry, what?" The woman asked, joining the conversation late, "Oh, I'm not worried about…I mean is, thanks." She never took her eyes off the neighborhood's empty storefronts and shaded alleys.

While the streets of the south were quiet, the area around the East Gate was pandemonium. Unlike the ordered process of accepting refugees that the barrier of Full Moon Bay provided, the way into Ba Sing Se from the east was unimpeded by natural barriers. The result was that the space between the inner wall and the outer wall had been turned into a semi-permanent refugee camp. The officials in charge decided that instead of packing people in, they'd move the city out and around the newcomers, making the Lower Ring slums larger every day.

Almost two hours of pushing and shoving had the pair on the verge of the city's exit. _Except for the crowds. Leaving the city looks like it going to be easer the entering it, _the cabbage merchant thought, maneuvering his cart though the throngs of people, the woman behind him in the wide wake created by the cart's width. _By the looks on the guards faces, we seem to be the only ones who have left in a while. All they do on the way out is wave, while on the way in they seemed to be in a race to destroy my produce._

A simple stone arch cut out of the wall was the only thing separating them from the outside world, when a small woman appeared out of nowhere, right in front of them, with a massive smile on her face. A thin man in a narrow, pointed straw hat stepped partially out of the wall's shadow behind her. Only his stone covered hands could be seen clearly

"Hello," she said, "I am Joo Dee, why you'd want to leave our wonderful, safe, city?"

"I…uhh," The cabbaged merchant replied, thinking fast on his feet.

"_Play along_." The woman said in a tone the cabbage merchant hadn't heard yet, but nonetheless felt compelled to follow, she then announced, "We're newlyweds!" joyfully and moved forward quickly to grasp the cabbage merchant's arm, who instantly looked like he was going to pass out, "We are off to start a new life together outside the walls!"

"_Outside the walls?_" The Joo Dee seemed perplexed, "Just the two of you," she peered into the cart, "some cabbages and one box?"

"We're more then capable of taking care of ourselves, aren't we Honey-Poo?"

"Uhh…yeah," the cabbage merchant added after getting an elbow to the ribs. He had never felt so many different kinds of nervous at once.

The Joo Dee glanced back at the stone-handed man, who nodded upwards gently, "I must know," she asked, "what is in the box? I'm just curious; you don't have anything to hide? Do you?"

"Of course not!" The cabbage merchant said, thinking that he finally had a handle on this inexpiable game of subterfuge he found himself in, although it in fact caused the woman to gasp audibly, and start looking around as if ready to run.

The Joo Dee leaned in to the cart and was just about to open one of the leather buckles that held it shut when the remaining pile of cabbages came to life. An adolescent Rabbitroo, the same one that drove the cabbage merchant to drink, bounded out of the cart and pounced onto the Joo Dee, licking her face before bounding around and between all four of them.

The assembled were locked in absolute surprise, and as eyes darted around searching for an explanation, the cabbage merchant spoke first, "Down! Settle down there, boy," he moved towards the animal and raised his arms as if trying to calm an excited ostrichorse.

"Are you traveling with this…thing?" The Joo Dee asked

"Yes...Yes," the woman replied, this is our attack rabbitroo…uhhh"

"_Munchie_, dear, her…his name is Munchie, remember?" The merchant replied remembering the name his mother used to lure rabbitroos on his father's farm to her, right before she would try to whack them with a sickle. The slow ones became dinner.

The Rabbitroo, formally known now as Munchie, began to show _affection_ for the stone-handed man…aggressively. The quartet was silent again this time in sheer, shared discomfort.

The woman spoke first, trying not to blush with embarrassment for the receiver of Munchie's affection, "As you can see, he can take care of…problems in more then one way."

"Get…it…off…of…me." The stone-handed man gritted out.

"Oh Snuggle-Cakes?" The cabbage merchant called to his companion, and with her attention, tossed her a spare cabbage from the cart. With it, she was able to lure Munchie out of his…activity.

"Leave. Now." The stone-handed man pointed to the gate, the rocks on his hands grinding with his finger movements just louder then the sound of his grinding teeth.

With an occupied Munchie in tow, the pair, now a trio, left Ba Sing Se.

Hours later on the road, the cabbage merchant could get the events at the gate out of his mind. _I can't stop thinking about it_, he thought, _what if she's dangerous?_

"What are you thinking about?" She asked.

"W-What makes you think I'm thinking of anything?"

"Well you have a distant look in your eyes, your head is tilted, you're pushing the cart off the road…and you're talking to yourself."

The merchant shifted position to put the cart back on the road, and struggled to think of something to say, "Mud!"

"Mud?"

"Yeah…uhhh I always wondered, you know Earthbenders move rocks and dirt, and Waterbenders move, well, water. But what about Mud?"

"What about mud?" The woman looked less perplexed and more bewildered.

"Well, mud is just wet dirt, right? So what wouldn't that mean that both kinds of benders could move it?"

At that, her mouth hung open just a tiny bit, and her eyes squinted just a shade, in what the cabbage merchant thought was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his whole life. "You're saying…" she finally said after considering mud for quite a while, "that the four elements are all connected! That means the four nations…might share a common ancestry! You know scholars say that we all lived as one people thousand of years ago, but there's been no proof, but if what you said it true…"

What just happened? "Actually I wanted to ask about before…"

"What about lava? Its melted rock, it could work for Firebenders and Earthbenders…there must be something like that for each pair of elements…wow, you're brilliant!" The woman then excitedly hugged the merchant and just as quickly disengaged, when she realized what she was doing, "Uhh…we should probably keep moving."

"Yes, yes we should go." Blushing with embarrassment, the cabbage merchant forgot about his questions for a moment and turned his focus back to his cart. They had been traveling up hill for a while and were nearing the summit; the path had gotten narrow. It was now bordered on the right side by a steep slope and on the left by a high ridge.

At the top the women spoke again, pointing out into the middle distance, "My…father's farm is just a couple hours away now, we're home free."

"I wouldn't say that," came a sharp female voice from up on the ridge. The merchant looked up to see a woman in tight black leather riding the strangest creature he had ever seen. She was wielding a whip and had a red tattoo on her exposed shoulder

"June." His companion said as she slowly started to crouch down.

"You were a fool to leave Ba Sing Se, and to think that my Shirshu couldn't pick up your trail again. Give up now and you'll have a more comfortable trip to my employer."

"Never." The woman replied, drawing two sais out from hidden sheaves attached to her legs. June tapped the side of her mount and suddenly the beast flung its tongue out at the woman, who caught the slippery appendage between the flats of her two weapons.

The speed of the action caught the cabbage merchant totally by surprise, and even caused Munchie to dive back into the cart. The woman then turned to the cabbage merchant and whispered, "No matter what, get the box to my father." The Shirshu pulled it's tongue free and the woman dashed forward and dug one sai into the ridge wall and used the other the help pull her up to June's level. Once on the ridge she had to duck again, this time to avoid the tongue, and then jumped up to engage June directly.

June blocked the woman's double-stab attempt with the thick braids of the whip's thong, then used the extra length to quickly wrap the woman's hands and use the leverage provided to fling her off the animal's back. The woman caught June's hip with her right foot on her way over and pulled the bounty hunter down and out of the sight of cabbage merchant.

"MY COMPANION!" He exclaimed, pulling his hat down on his head in astonished frustration. _I have got to help her, but how? I'm no warrior and I don't have any bending powers, but I do have one thing,_ "Get her, Munchie!" The Rabbitroo did not respond.

The cabbage merchant began to furiously pull at the animal, trying to get it to respond, when the woman came skidding off of the ridge and landed in a heap. The cabbage merchant ran over to her, only to have her push him off and out of the way when the June-mounted Shirshu landed in the in the very place he once stood.

The pair continued to duel, but the woman was barely holding her own against the combined attacks of June's whip and the Shirshu's tongue. _June has her back turned to me, now's my chance! _The cabbage merchant grabbed a head out of his cart and with squinted eyes, chucked it at the back of June's head.

Missing his target by the width of a Platypusbear, the cabbage instead struck his companion square in the face, stunning her long enough for the Shirshu to rake its tongue across her exposed neck. She experienced a full body twitch, and then dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

_Oops_, he thought standing frozen in his throwing position as if he was stunned himself. June hopped down off her mount and slung the woman over the back of the animal, "Stop!" He was finally able to say.

June flicked her whip at the cabbage merchant so quickly that he wondered where she bought the green hat she was holding until he figured out that she had snatched it off his own head in an instant.

The cabbage merchant fell backward on his rear in fear and amazement.

"Didn't think so," June said climbing back up onto the Shirshu, "Thanks for the help anyway, I'll cut you in on the bounty…if I ever see you again," she tore his hat in half and tossed him the pieces, "and I had better not." With that, she bade the beast to climb back up the ridge.

Before she disappeared, the cabbage merchant caught the eyes of his paralyzed former companion. He looked at her apologetically. She looked _pissed_.

He turned to face Munchie, "What do I do now?" Munchie on the other hand was off in his own world, discovering the new flavor of the heavy box that the woman left behind, "The box! I can a least get the box to her father, and maybe get some help for her there. Let's go!" _I'm so not going to get paid now._

Hours later, the sun had almost completely set. The cabbage merchant, Munchie in tow, finally spotted the old mill and sprinted the last few hundred feet towards it. Upon closer inspection, the cobblestone tower seemed abandoned.

"Hello?" He called out, "I'm looking for…" he didn't know the woman's father's name, so he tried another tack and called out, "I'm looking the father of…" he didn't know her name either. _I knew there was something I kept forgetting to ask, _he thought_, I know! _"I have the box!" He yelled.

Out of nowhere a dozen armed men appeared. Three of them drew rocks out of the tower and held them fast over the cabbage merchant's head. Only Munchie was more surprised than he was as he leapt out of the cart and into the cabbage merchant's arms, whom after a beat, unceremoniously dumped the cabbage-stealing little coward on the ground. Two men approached, one visibly aged and the other much younger.

"You have the box?" The old man asked, to whom the cabbage merchant replied with a nervous nod.

The younger man then stepped in front, "Forget about the box, where is the Princess?"

_**Meanwhile…**_

"Forget about the Princess, where is the box?" War Minister Qin asked after June dropped the de-paralyzed, but bound and gagged princess on the floor of his command tent.

"What box?" June asked angrily, "You hired me to get the girl, and after considerable time and effort, her she is!"

"She would of have had the box with her!" The aged Fire Nation official yelled back.

"You didn't hire me to find a box! I've brought you what you wanted, now pay me."

Qin seethed for a few moments, then decided that arguments wouldn't settle this issue, "Lieutenant, pay this woman, and then run her out of my camp."

June took the small bag of gold that the young officer offered and left muttering, "What is it with these Fire Nation types and young women? Creepy."

War Minister Qin then crouched down to look at the princess, "I don't need the box, do I? With you as my prisoner, the resistance will come to me, and I can take care of you, them, and the walls of Ba Sing Se in one fell swoop!"

_**Back at the mill…**_

"What Princess?" The cabbage merchant asked.

"The girl who had the box, what did you do with her?" The young man shouted, drawing a long, curved blade.

"Kohai! Stop!" The old man ordered, and the young man complied. "This young man was obviously entrusted with the box, and that means the princess trusted him with her life. We should treat him with respect that that trust is due."

"Yes, Senpai, of course," Kohai replied.

"Tell me young man, where is the young woman who gave you this box?"

The collar of the cabbage merchant's shirt became very tight suddenly, "Ummm, she was captured by a bounty hunter…"

Senpai's face turned from gentle and understanding to pure fury in an instant. He waved his hand over his face once and the cabbage merchant's world went black.

He awoke to find a half dozen Fire Nation gymnasts fawning all over him, tickling his face with cabbage leaves and fanning his body with giant fans made out of cabbage. He stretched out on his bed of cabbage and smiled in perfect contentment. Then suddenly each girl's head changed into the face of that boy with the blue stripe and everything began to be crushed by giant rocks falling out of nowhere.

"MY CONCUBINES!" He shouted, now awake for real, and facing a room full of strange looks and a Rabbitroo licking his face. After a moment, they all turned back to what they were doing, which looked like a planning meeting, "Wow, that _was_ a good show," he whispered to himself.

He staggered to his feet and looked over one man's shoulder to see what was going on. Kohai placed the box on the table in front of Senpai and opened it. He then pulled out an object emblazoned with the Fire Nation symbol that was foreign to the cabbage merchant. It looked like thick walled barrel tilted at an angle and set with two wheels on either side.

Senpai began to speak, "This is the object that the princess we were charged to protect risked her life to bring to us from the Northern Air Temple. The weapon smith there has recently changed his allegiance away from the Fire Nation and has provided a model of the latest war engine that he built for the enemy. It is called a '_cannon_'and with its destructive power, the Fire Nation can obliterate the walls of Ba Sing Se with one strike. Our spies have determined that that attack is coming tomorrow." The warriors in the room murmured nervously as Senpai continued, "Now I have examined the device and determined its weakness. There are several small holes here near the base," he explained pointing at four equally spaced ports in the base of the cannon, "to effectively operate the weapon, four firebenders must strike through them in sequence. The resulting explosion will propel an iron ball a great distance and with great force. Force enough to pierce the walls of the capitol." The murmuring reached a fervor pitch, "Our only option is to get Earthbenders close enough to plug these ports before they all can be activated. If we time it right, the resulting malfunction should destroy the weapon."

"Hit a target that small? Impossible!" One warrior complained.

"It's not impossible, I plugged Singing Groundhog holes that size with rocks back home." Another bragged, which earned him a smack on the head.

Kohai finished the briefing, "We leave at dawn, we are going to break into teams, each with one Earthbender and an assigned target. This is the day we've been waiting for, and although the Princess isn't here, we still fight in her name. We fight for _her_, for our _families_, for our _nation_, and for our _king_!"

"THE EARTH KINGDOM IS ETERNAL! LONG LIVE THE EARTH KING!" The assembled shouted, startling the cabbage merchant and causing Munchie to hide under the bed.

The crowd started to move out of the cabin, and the cabbage merchant caught Kohai by the shoulder eliciting a scary look from the young man, "Wait," he asked, "What's going on here? She's a Princess? There's going to be a battle? With a 'Cannot'?"

"A 'Can_non_.'" he corrected.

"Exactly, explain it to me! Please!"

"What? You want to help?"

"Do _I_ want to _help_?" The cabbage merchant intoning, _c'mon,_ _how could I possibly help?_

"Great, we could use every spare hand." Kohai responded, apparently unfamiliar with sarcasm, "Please forgive me and my Grandfather for our actions beforehand. We do in fact respect the trust the princess placed in you. It is the same kind of trust the Royal Family put in my family's hands one hundred years ago when the drums of war began to beat, and the then Earth King sent his brother's family away for our safe keeping. So we will be honored to fight along side of you in the coming battle."

_I think I just volunteered, _"Glad to be…on the team?" he replied.

"Now, tell me brother, what battle skills do you wield?"

"I uhhh….have a cart…and…uhhh...well, I do have an attack Rabbitroo!" There was silence, and in the distance a man coughed, "His name is Munchie."

"We'll find something useful for you to do."

An hour before down the camp moved out, the cabbage merchant brought up the rear, struggling with the load of wedge-shaped rocks in his cart. _Could be worse, I could be one of the guys in the front. _A few minutes later, the group stopped at the crest of a hill, and few minutes later still the cabbage merchant was able to get his cart up high enough to see what had stopped them.

In the valley ahead was a sight unlike any other. The walls of Ba Sing Se could be seen in the distance, but they looked puny in comparison to the massive cannon of the Fire Nation. It was a large as a mountain, and made of the blackest iron. Suspended from the ground by massive iron wheels, it was pointed away from him and at the walls. Fire Nation solders scurried around it like bugs on a pile of rotten cabbages. Between it and the walls, a massive Fire Army invasion force stood ready to take the city.

Kohai began to speak, "This is it, men. The fate of the Earth Kingdom rests in your hands. Warriors draw your weapons! Earthbenders! Draw your rocks!" With that, several dozen of the rocks in his cart levitated up and out of it, causing the cart to become a bit off balance. This began to startle Munchie, who moved to the front of cart, tilting it over the hill a bit more, "Ready! CHA-" he announced, but he was too slow.

"MY COUNTERPOISE!" The cabbage merchant yelled as his cart got away from him and started to drag him down the hill, "It means baaaaaaaallllaaaanncceee!'" he explained, which caused the men follow him, yelling their own battle cries.

The cabbage merchant was finally overtaken at the bottom of the hill as the resistance warriors, followed by their leader, engaged the enemy. The fighting was furious, at least the parts the cabbage merchant could see, as he kept his head down and was slowly moved forward by the line of battle by his constant need to keep his limbs attached. He finally found himself a short distance from the cannon itself and had to blink hard at what he saw. The woman, the Princess, was tied to the underside of one of the large wheels, and even though the resistance warriors were fighting all along the structure, no one had seen her.

Against his better judgment, he sneaked his cart up as close to the weapon as he dared and moved to untie the Princess.

"You?" She said, sounding bewildered, "What are you doing here? Doesn't matter, get me off of this thing, if it fires, I'll be crushed."

The cabbage merchant struggled with the thick knots, "How would that happen?" He asked.

"It's called recoil; the Mechanist said if a thing is shot with fire one way, it pushes back the other way with equal force!"

The cabbage merchant stopped working at the knots and scratched his head, "That doesn't make sense, Firebenders shoot flames out of their hands, and they never fall backwards."

The Princess thought about that for a moment before speaking, "You know what, it is a bit strange I wonder, no, wait…GET ME OFF THIS THING!"

"Oh, yeah, right." He began to work at the knots

"Fire the cannon!" He heard an older Fire Nation officer command, and at once Firebenders one at a time started to light the cannon.

_Oh cruddy cabbage crops, I'm out of time,_ "Munchie! Get over here!" the cabbage merchant commanded, and to his surprise, the Rabbitroo compiled, "Munchie, if chew through these ropes I'll feed you cabbage until you're bloated and discolored." The Rabbitroo began right away as the merchant clambered up the side of the cannon.

"Where are you going?" The Princess asked.

"I have no idea," he replied as he struggled to pull himself up on to the sloped gantry that ran around the circumference of the cannon. Once one top, and once he got his breath back, he saw that he was alone with two of the Firebender operators. One behind him was currently shooting flame into he cannon and the one in front was just about to complete the sequence when he was startled by the appearance of the cabbage merchant.

"W-Who are you?" He asked.

"I…uhhh…I am THE AVATAR!" The cabbage merchant replied with the only appropriate response when trying to intimidate someone clearly more powerful then you.

"No your not."

"Of course I am! Now stop this immediately or face the wrath of the elements!" The cabbage merchant struck what he hoped was a fearsome pose.

"The Avatar is a twelve year old bald kid with a blue line on his head."

The cabbage merchant went cold and then very hot,_ that kid, the one who's plagued me for months…is the Avatar? What? Why?_ The cabbage merchant dropped his hands to his side and screamed, "MY CONCEPTIONS!"

"Uh…you ok there, buddy?" The Fire Nation soldier asked.

The cabbage merchant calmed himself for a moment, "No, I don't think I will be for some time."

"Sorry to hear that, but I've got something to do here, you if you don't mind."

"I'm sorry but I can't let you!" The cabbage merchant then charged forward to tackle is opponent, who instead simply flipped the merchant over the railing.

Hanging on with only one hand, he saw the Firebender start to charge his flame, and heard a voice call out from under him.

"Are you ok?" The Princess asked, now free from the wheel.

"No, not really," he replied, "I need something to plug this hole or it's all over."

"Ok, one second…here!" She threw a wedge shaped rock up at him.

The cabbage merchant quickly swung out of the way and the huge rock clanged on the cannon beside him, "Hey! Careful!" He glared back down at the Princess, "I'm not an Earthbender! What was I going to do with that! Get me something else!"

"What then?"

"I don't know, think of something."

"Uh...here! Catch!"

The merchant opened his right hand and in it landed the most beautiful thing in the world, a perfectly formed cabbage. Pulling himself up with his left arm, he flung the cabbage with pinpoint accuracy into cannon's port. A second later, the Firebender released his flame, but with the tube plugged, the cannon began to shudder and smoke.

From a distance, he heard Kohai yell, "It's going to blow!"

"Jump!" The Princess yelled, "I've got you!"

The cabbage merchant let go and landed in his cart with a painful thud. _My cart full of rocks, much softer then the ground, thanks, _he tried to say, but all that came out was, "Muuhhhhh…"

"Munchie! Let's go!" The Princess pushed the cart away and then tipped it on its side, just before the cannon exploded in tremendous fashion, shaking the earth and knocking everybody off their feet.

When the cacophonous sound finally died down, the cabbage merchant spoke weakly, "Did we do it?"

"Yes, we did it." She replied.

"Hooray for our side."

**Four Weeks Before Cometfall**

Ten weeks and many adventures later, the Eastern Rebellion joined up with the Free Army of the Earth Kingdom and on the Day of the Black Sun retook the capitol of Ba Sing Se. The mighty Earth King was reunited that day with the cousin he never knew he had, and when the King heard the story of the brave citizen who risked everything to save her and the city he called for a ceremony.

The hero was summoned to the throne room. The cabbage merchant entered and a legion of warriors came to attention. With Munchie at his side, he approached the throne and received a medal from the Princess for Extraordinary Services to the Kingdom.

The King spoke first, "Citizen, the Earth Kingdom owes you a debt of gratitude that we can't possibly begin to repay, but this should come close." With that, the King bade an attendant to approach with a long box, "In this box contains the cabbage growing secrets of the first Kings of the Earth. They are yours; with them, you will no doubt become the greatest cabbage grower in the world." The room exploded in applause.

Hours later, with the reception over and with life becoming the cabbage merchant pushed his empty cart down the wide streets of the Inner Ring, with a spring in his step and a smile on his face.

"You know Munchie, it's been a tough couple of months, but it all turned out all right." The cabbage merchant hopped up on a low wall and turned his head to the sky, feeling the warmth of the sun on his face, "And with the scrolls the King gave me, I'll soon be set for life! Let's get to work!"

The cabbage merchant hopped down and heard a soft crunching sound from behind him and turned to see Munchie eating paper out of a long box.

"MY CABBAGE CROP CULTIVATION CATALOG!" The cabbage merchant dropped to his knees and rapped his head on the side of his cart for a while before catching his breath, "Oh well," he sighed, "if your done with lunch, I've got to get back to work." He got up, grabbed the handles of his cart and started pushing it on down the road, leaving Munchie behind. He only got twenty or so feet further before looking back at an animal with an impossibly sad look on its face, "Come on, Munchie, let's go."


	4. Smellerbee, the Assassin

_Cometfall. The name given to the day that Sozin's Comet returns, the deadline for the life of a world._

_The fall of Ba Sing Se marked the beginning of the end of the Fire Nation War, and while the fate of millions rested in the hands of five children, there were others who had their own parts to play. For right or wrong, for peace or for war, for today or for tomorrow, these are their stories._

Tales of Cometfall: Smellerbee, the Assassin

_There is an ancient Earth Kingdom proverb:_

_When seeking revenge,_

_first dig two graves._

**Three Months Before Cometfall**

"There's no time. Just go. We'll take care of him. He's our leader."

Smellerbee was in shock, and even the first words she had ever heard Longshot say in the three years she had known him could not shake her out of it. _Jet, no! _She thought, _be all right, please be all right! _She then thought she heard Jet speak, but Smellerbee could only hear the sound of her own heart pounding. She dropped to her knees, shaking the tears from her eyes, and began to stroke Jet's hair.

Although her eyes were locked on Jet's, she did not fail to notice Aang, Sokka, Toph and Katara leave. _Fine_, she thought bitterly, _we don't need them. Longshot and I will protect him_. Smellerbee ran her hand down Jet's face once then stood up next to Longshot, her hand gripping the hilt of her sword, her eyes blinking tears away. A faint rumbling sound could be heard coming towards them. The Dai Li were breaking through the walls that Toph put up. _They'll be here any minute…good. Someone is going to pay for this._

"Longshot," Jet coughed out, attracting the silent archer's attention, "You know…what you have to do…" Jet, his words broken up by fits of bloody coughing, finished by glancing at Smellerbee.

Smellerbee turned from Jet and up towards Longshot. _No_, she thought, _he can't mean that_.

"Do it …that's an order."

Longshot nodded his head, and lowered his bow.

"No!" Smellerbee shouted, "No! I want to-" she was cut off as the air in her lungs was forced out by a sharp knee strike delivered by her friends and ally. The breathless swordswoman dropped to one knee. Longshot picked her up and carried her to the edge of the sewer room. "No, don't, please…"

[Goodbye, the archer said with his eyes, and dropped her into the fast moving water.

"No! Jet! JET!" She yelled repeatedly until she was swept under the green water. With just a half breath of air, she was buffeted against the sides of the stone pipe and spun around a hundred times. Just as she started to feel her lungs give out, she burst out of darkness and into the light.

She was airborne, plummeting down a cascading waterfall and landing hard in a deep pool at its base. Breathless, Smellerbee fought to reach the air against the push of the falling water and the pull of her soaked armor. She burst to the surface with a massive gasp, feeling life return to her.

Pulling herself sideways across the surface of the water, she crawled up a small beach and retched out a bucketful of the foul sewer water. Catching her breath and spitting the taste of filth out of her mouth, Smellerbee unsheathed her sword, drew a line of blood across her left arm and stabbed the blade into the sand.

"Long Feng."

**Nine Weeks Before Cometfall**

"…Don't worry kid, Dad and I will be fine! We're going to run those Fire Nation fools out of our valley and be back before the rains come!" The kid's oldest brother said with wry smile, slinging the last of his supplies over the family's second ostrichhorse.

"Enough," the kid's father spoke, "we need to get moving." The father then pointed at the one son he was leaving behind, "You watch out for your mother and the baby."

_I'm not a baby_, the kid thought. She had aired that that complaint verbally many times before, but now with her father leaving it felt out of place to contradict him. Her mother walked up to her husband and handed him his sword, and after a few quiet words, the father and his oldest son mounted their rides and trotted off.

The kid, feeling a stab of fear like none she had never felt before, started after them, crying. Her mother caught up to her quickly and held her tightly. They cried together for a long time…

Smellerbee awoke with a start. It had been weeks now since Jet died, and Smellerbee was finished waiting. The self-inflicted cut on her arm had all but healed, but the blood red scar kept staring back at her, a purposeful reminder. _It's been long enough_, she thought while rubbing the sleep from her eyes, _the Dai Li might still be looking for me, but time makes memories fade and guards drop. It's time to go back to the city._

The young swordswoman broke her camp and did her best to disguise that fact that she was ever there. She had a lot of experience in these matters, she lived on her own for two years in the forest before she met Jet and joined his Freedom Fighters. Smellerbee flushed with embarrassment for the way she attacked her former leader when they first met. The years in isolation had all but turned her into an animal. _Here I am, alone again. If I live through this, I might end up as I was, so do I really want to live through this? _Smellerbee shook those thoughts out of her head and refocused on her goal.

She had decided to enter the city once again as a refugee; she first moved in a wide arc around the Fire Nation encampment that she had been stealing food and supplies from for the past few weeks.

During one of her many stealthy trips in and out of the camp over the past few weeks, she had heard them complain that that they'd rather be fighting. That an elite force such as themselves had better things to do then occasionally wash the mechanical carriage, and that at least that they finished guarding those 'pitiful' Earth Kingdom warriors. It took all of Smellerbee's restraint to keep from slitting their throats in the night. She had her target, and she wasn't going let herself be distracted.

As day broke, she was easily able to blend in with the long line of refuges that formed a human trail to the secluded port of Half Moon Bay. _I was one of them last time, homeless and nearly hopeless, but I had Longshot and Jet, and now I have next to nothing. But I won't need much more then what I do have, _she thought, gripping the hilt of her blade.

A two-day walk put her back into the massive cavern that hid the capital city ferry's departure point. The scene was almost absolute chaos. The semblance of order that existed just weeks ago had broken down, as throngs of people bypassed the undermanned ticket windows and customs counters and crammed into which ever ferry had it's gangplank down. _Suits me just fine, I don't have the money for a bribe, and it will be better if there is nothing written down that I was ever here._

Smellerbee squeezed onto the boat with the last rush of refugees, and made her way down to the lowest deck. Below the waterline the air was a bit cooler, but it was still stifling from the throngs of people breathing and shifting around in the cramped quarters. She put her back to the keel and kept one hand on the hilt of her sword. _It will take all night to reach the other side_, she thought, _and with no one to watch my back, I can't go to sleep_. Hours passed and Smellerbee continued to scan the hold that, with its hatch now closed, was illuminated by only six small oil lamps, swinging gently with the motion of the boat. The refugees, families mostly, were asleep, huddling together like woolypigs in a snowstorm. _Except these people are not afraid of the cold, they're just afraid_. It was dark, quiet, and the gently rolling of the boat was too much. Smellerbee fell asleep.

…Only one ostrichhorse came back. The kid's oldest brother was alone. He and his mount staggered back into town after dark weeks later and collapsed once they were within the gate. The family he left behind rushed over to him, the kid holding a torch to light the scene. The oldest brother lay on the ground, staring up at the sky, his eyes wide, but his mouth silent. His mother tried to talk to him, tried to get any information about the battle and his father, but he said nothing. He just lay there clutching his father's sword by the blade in his bare right hand.

The kid leaned into look at his brother, who until now had always seemed so strong. Once flame of the torch was within his sight, he began to scream. He then squeezed the blade in his hand until he started to bleed.

"They're coming!" He screeched horribly, "They're coming…"

"Come on kid, wake up!" The ferry crewmember kicked Smellerbee awake.

_Damn, I fell asleep!_ Smellerbee scolded herself as she made her way out of the now empty hold. She was funneled into the massive immigration hall, which was twice as full as it was the last time she was here. In stark contrast to the port of Full Moon Bay, however, the process of ingress into the city was as orderly as ever. Smellerbee got in a line and kept a look out for a way past the immigration officials and city guards. _Any one of them could be Dai Li. I can't afford to draw attention to myself_, she thought.

Five hours later, she reached the head of the line, where she strained to look up at the fat old woman who occupied the stone booth that was Smellerbee's last gate on her way back into the city. The fat woman sneered down at her, "You have any paperwork?"

"No."

The fat woman sighed audibly, "Ok, whatever. Name?"

Smellerbee had a long time to come up with a cover, "Pìn Lù."

"Any family?"

Smellerbee knew this question was coming but she still brushed her fingers across the lines on her face subconsciously, "No."

The fat woman looked Smellerbee up and down in a way that made her feel uncomfortable, "Too old for the orphanage. The city is hiring workers for the city's expansion, you earthbend?"

"No."

"A disagreeable one, aren't you? Whatever. There is a works program office near the gate, but I'd bring some money if you don't want to end up hauling loose rocks. Ok, let's get this done; only fifty nine more questions to go."

An hour later, 'Pìn Lù' was loose in the city again. Smellerbee made a beeline for the small apartment house where she, Longshot, and Jet lived during their short stay. She kept off the main thoroughfares, moving from alley to alley to reach her destination. _What am I going to do when I get there, _she thought_, knock on the door and say that the Dai Li want me dead, do you still have my old bedroll?_

The question was answered for her when she saw her and her former companion's gear in a pile of rotting garbage in an adjoining alleyway. She took a step out of the shadow she was hiding in, towards the items when a chill ran down her spine. _No, this is wrong, why would the landlord leave them out like that? He clearly figured out that we weren't coming back, why didn't he sell them? Is this a trap?_ Smellerbee had no real idea if the Dai Li knew she was alive, but there was always a chance that they were looking for her. _It was stupid to come here_, she berated herself, dashing back through the alleys away from the apartment, _I may just be paranoid, but I can't trust myself not to be, and I don't need a soiled bedroll to take out Long Feng._

She made it about six blocks away when a young man jumped down from the roof of a low building in front of her. "What do you think your doing?" The young man assumed a stance that Smellerbee immediately recognized. _Earthbender, but he's too young to be Dai Li. Isn't he?_

"This alley belongs to us!" Another voice called out from behind her, she quickly looked back to see two boys, each carrying wooden planks.

_A gang, _she thought_, I don't have time for this. _"I don't want any trouble; I'll be on my way."

"Kid, it's not that easy, you've got to pay a toll." The Earthbender threatened, taking a strong step forward, raising two small spikes of stone to block the path behind him

"Yeah, that sword of yours looks nice, we'll take it."

"I'm going to need this," Smellerbee said, gripping the hilt of her blade with her left hand, thumb up.

"You're going to fight me with that? I command the power of the Earth! You don't stand a chance against me little boy!" The leader said, now just inches from Smellerbee.

"Yeah!" The pair of lackeys yelled.

Smellerbee smirked, "That's the problem with you rockheads, your always putting your foot," in a flash, Smellerbee stomped her right boot into the left instep of the Earthbender, breaking it, "…in your mouth!" She finished by drawing her sword straight up and jamming its hilt into the Earthbender's jaw. The young man collapsed, holding his mouth. Without his feet steady on the ground, he was powerless.

Smellerbee then spun the blade the right way around in her palm and switched it to her sword arm. Rotating around, she cleaved the wooden weapon of one of the lackeys in a single stroke and after drawing her weapon back, thrust it forward into the plank the that the second boy was holding. A twist of her wrist snapped it free from the boy's grip. Smellerbee kicked the plank off with her foot, and all it took was a threatening gesture to make the lackeys run off.

Smellerbee turned back around and walked out of the alley, taking a deliberate step on the cringing body of the Earthbender, "Can't you see I'm a girl?"

Hours later, night had fallen and Smellerbee hunkered down in a dark corner near a fountain lit by hundred of small lanterns and took stock of her situation. _All right, I'm back in the city, and I need to get into the palace, but how? It's not as if they allow visitors. I'm going to need time to look it over, to see if there was any way past not only the Dai Li, but the regular guards as well._ Smellerbee fretted over how daunting her mission would be and for a moment considered giving up, before looking down and seeing the red line cut into her flesh. _This one will never come off, _she thought_, this one I'll make mean something. _

Her reverie was broken by a sharp cramp in her stomach. _I haven't eaten since before I got on the ferry. I don't have any money, and I can't risk stealing anything. No matter what the punishment for theft is here, I already have a death sentence. _Smellerbee rolled her eyes when the solution came to her. _I'm going to have to get a job._

Smellerbee stealthily made her way up to the hayloft of an out-of-the-way livery. She disguised herself as an inanimate lump of dried grass the best she could and went to sleep.

"…They're here! Get in the cellar, hurry!" The kid's second oldest brother yelled, shoving her and their mother towards the hatch in the floor. He pushed with one hand and held what was now his sword in the other.

The day before the oldest child had regained his senses only long enough to tell of the town militia's defeat at the hands of the Fire Nation Army. He spoke of their father's incineration then dropped off into near catatonia. As the attack on the town began, he was still sitting in his room, watching a candle burn down at an imperceptibly slow rate.

The kid lifted the floor hatch with all her strength. She got it open and held it above her head just long enough to turn around and see a spear pierce her brother's chest. Her mother, overcome now with anger and grief, pushed the kid down into the cellar and charged her son's killer. The kid tumbled down the short set of stairs and was knocked out on impact with the earthen floor…

The next morning, Smellerbee tried to fool her hungry body as best she could by drinking more then her fill at the local public water pump. It was a trick that the Freedom Fighters often had to resort to. Lychee nuts may grow on trees, but they don't grow overnight. A band of growing warriors can clean out a grove of them in a day, and Fire Nation supply carts rarely run on rebel schedules.

Even thought it was still early, the line at the works office already snaked well out the door. There were people of all sizes, but not of all shapes. All of them had one thing in common: the lean, hungry look of one desperate to put their life back together.

Several late arrivals like her were crowded around a square notice board attached to the side of the building. A weathered piece of paper was stretched along the top and read 'Help Wanted' and below it random scraps of paper listed dozens of jobs that were available. _I'm going to bet that 'Rebel Partisan Wanted for Campaign of Enemy Harassment' isn't going to be there_, she thought.

The 'opportunities' listed were just the kind of drudgery she expected to be filled by the poor and the displaced: woodcutter, water carrier, animal waste management, but it was the last one that her running to the nearest merchant: "Servers Needed: Royal Palace."

"I'll give you fifty, and that's just because you're a kid, and I like kids," the wiry and strangely accented weapons merchant said, examining Smellerbee's sword with one eye open.

"Seventy-Five," Smellerbee countered. The words of the old woman at the immigration desk rang in her ears, _'I'd bring some money if you don't want to end up hauling loose rocks.'_

"Seventy-Five? I'm liking kids a bit less right now. I'll give you sixty, but you have to know that the blade is unremarkable, it's the hilt that has value," the merchant reprised, rubbing his fingers on the small red jewel that was implanted into the end of the grip.

"Sixty-Five, or the hilt finds a better home."

"Done." The merchant stabbed the blade into a bench behind him, pulled a small sack off his belt, and tossed it at Smellerbee, "There's your money, don't spend it all on a rainy day or whatever."

Smellerbee gripped the base of the bag and felt the coins inside shift and slide against each other. _For a handful of coins, _Smellerbee thought_, there goes another part of my old life, my life before Jet. _

The line in front of the works office moved faster then expected; it was only just past midday when Smellerbee reached the front. There she was directed to approach a disinterested clerk who sat at a high counter, flanked on each side by three of his similarly disinterested coworkers. Resting his head on one side, he stared off into space looking at neither Smellerbee nor the blank form he set in front of himself from a large stack of such forms. Behind him, a half dozen other clerks carried stacks of such papers back and forth, picking them up and putting them down. Smellerbee had never seen such regimented movement outside of a ritual dance.

"Name?" The clerk dipped his quill into his narrow bottle of ink without having to look at it.

"Pìn Lù."

"What job, if any, would you like to have? Please be aware," he paused to yawn, "that such requests are non-binding and the final decision as to employment is determined without regard to you request." His sleepy tone made it clear that this was far from the first time he had spoken those words.

"Royal Palace server, please," _can't hurt to be polite_, she thought.

The clerk snorted, "Yeah, you and everyone else kid," the sound of the bag of money hitting the counter was the first thing that got his attention. He poked at it with his quill and then looked down at Smellerbee. He then turned to the clerk next to him, a young lady with a vacant look in her eyes, "Hey, I'm going on my break now," he looked back at Smellerbee, "come with me."

The clerk took her and the bag of money back behind the counter, and into a small room partitioned away from the larger office. It was empty and Smellerbee felt the hair on her neck stand up_. Something's wrong, _she thought_, are they going to bust me for bribery or is it worse? _Smellerbee looked over the room for anything she could use as a weapon, but there was only a desk with one chair on either side. _I sold my sword for the chance to walk, unarmed, into a trap. _

She began to back away from the clerk, who put his hands up, "Whoa, relax kid, I'm going to get the boss, just take a seat, and he'll be right in," when the clerk left, Smellerbee promptly ignored most of his advice and backed into a corner. Moments later the door opened again and a large, heavyset man walked in.

"You must be," he looked down at the piece of paper he held in her hand, "Pìn Lù. Go ahead and have a seat, because I'm going to, I'm exhausted!" He laughed, and thudded down onto his chair, which groaned under the pressure.

Smellerbee didn't move.

"Honestly child, I'm trying to help you here, since you've been so…generous, but how are we going to get anything done if we don't trust each other enough to have a polite conversation!" He began to fan himself with her employment request form. It was then that Smellerbee noticed that he was almost completely drenched with sweat.

Smellerbee took her chair, but never took her eyes off the large man.

"Now isn't that better!" He chuckled, "My name is Gū Bǎn, and I can tell by the way you handle yourself that you're not like the rubes we usually get in here," Gū Bǎn pulled the small sack filled with Smellerbee's bribe and let it hit the desk with a thud. "As you figured, jobs in the palace are in high demand, and for good reason! The pay is good…well, reasonably good, and since those who you would want to be serving are not the kinds of people who like to be kept waiting, so both room and board are…modestly provided on site. You would like such a job, yes?"

"Yes," Smellerbee replied, _this will be perfect, but why do I feel like the other shoe is about to drop?_

"It can speak! Ancestors be praised!" the large man began to laugh, causing his whole body to shake. If chairs could scream, his would be deafening, "I'm sorry," he chuckled a quick apology, whipping a tear of laughter from his eye with the sleeve of his sweat-covered robe. "I can't help myself sometimes!" The large man caught his breath and continued, "Let's get down to business here. As I said these jobs are in high demand and I'd really like to know, why you would want it so bad that you'd risk a bribery arrest to get it." He finished, taking on an accusatory tone, and narrowing his eyes.

Smellerbee was ready with a long and what she thought was a very plausible story. She took a deep breath and began, "You see, I…"

"I'm just kidding, I don't care!" Gū Bǎn laughed, "Boy did you look nervous! I'm sorry; like I said, I just can't help myself. Ok, this is how it's going to work: I'll get you the job, and even get you ready to do it, and in exchange, you'll pay me two thirds of what you make. Deal?"

_He's a crook, what a relief! _She thought_, but I can't let on that I don't care about_ _the money_, "Two thirds?" she whined, "What do you mean two thirds?"

"Call it a commission, or a finder's fee, whatever, you'll get fed, you'll get a place to sleep and even a little money out of it, I'd say you're coming out ahead. I can be so generous, can't I?"

_Keep up the act_, "I don't know…"

"Look, child," Gū Bǎn's tone shifted darkly, "you're already past the point of no return here with your pathetic attempt at a bribe, so let's just go along to get along and we'll all come out ahead in the end. You don't want to end up in any kind of legal trouble, bribery is a serious charge. And in case you ask, no, I'm not kidding this time"

_He thinks he's got me right where he wants me, but I couldn't be more satisfied_. "I'll do as you say," Smellerbee hung her head in mock resignation.

"Good, now take this," Gū Bǎn pulled a small folded piece of parchment out of his robe and handed it to Smellerbee. It was moist with sweat and made her shiver in revulsion, "Go to the address on the front, my seal will get you through the gate. The people there will handle the rest." Gū Bǎn stood up, much to the relief of his chair. "It was a pleasure doing business with you, Pìn Lù. I look forward to a profitable arrangement." Smellerbee could hear him laugh as she made her way out of the building, but he couldn't see her smile.

Twenty minutes later when she reached her destination, he smile faded, "The Fancy Lady Day Spa?" She questioned audibly to no one in particular. She looked back down at the parchment that Gū Bǎn had given her. It had only two features, a mark that must have been his seal, and this address. _No doubt that this is the place, _she thought_, this is what he meant by 'getting me ready for it.'_

As she stepped thought the threshold of the spa, she was immediately stuck with a wave of sweet smells that brought her unprepared eyes to the point of watering. She screwed up her nose to avoid the odor, only to find that she could taste it as well. Across the small foyer a young woman, just a few years older than Smellerbee sat at a desk, absent mindedly twirling her hair in her fingers and staring into space. She noticed Smellerbee approach, snapped to in her seat, and plastered on a fake smile.

"Welcome to the Fan…" was a far as she got when she finally looked down at Smellerbee and screwed up her own nose at the new arrival in an uncanny reflection of Smellerbee's own reaction. "Umm, are you lost little…girl?" She asked condescendingly.

_You have no idea, lady_, "No, I was told to come here, I have this." Smellerbee held up the parchment and desk attendant snatched it out of her hand.

She looked it over for a moment, and then looked back down at Smellerbee before speaking, "Máo!" She yelled, "There's another of Gū Bǎn's here!"

What followed were the most excruciating and humiliating hours of Smellerbee's life. A haughty, emaciated woman who could only have been Máo had two female attendants pull Smellerbee into a back room of the spa. There she was backed into a corner and was told to stand over a grate while the attendants moved back towards a large object that was covered with a sheet. Máo then approached and circled Smellerbee like a buzzardwasp, making little disapproving grunting noises every few moments as she discovered new supposed faults with the young swordswoman.

Smellerbee felt her face grow hot with anger and embarrassment and she wasn't going to be judged like a piece of meat. "What do you think your doing?"

Máo grunted again didn't speak as much as hiss, "Be quiet, _stray_. The finest ladies in the Earth Kingdom pay a fortune to be in my presence, you should consider this an honor! So be quiet and we won't leave you in the gutter where Gū Bǎn found you."

Smellerbee didn't share that feeling and felt her hands move to where her sword would have been.

Máo turned her back to Smellerbee and addressed her attendants, "Face, hands, feet are a foregone conclusion, and that hair…use the root extract. All right, get started, I want this…person, out of my spa as quickly as possible." With that, she swept out of the room as one attendant closed on Smellerbee while the other pulled the sheet of the large object to reveal a massive water pump. Máo reached the beaded door and barked out one last order, "Don't forget to burn those rags of hers, who knows what things are living in them."

_No_, Smellerbee almost said, taking a half step back after realizing what was about to occur. _I can take these two out easily, but I'll lose my way into the palace. I have to let this happen. _Smellerbee began to cry in spite of herself as the attendant helped her out of her patchwork cloth and leather armor, then out of her undergarments.

Futilely covering herself with one arm and wiping her face with the other she saw that her unexpected tears had began to smudge the four red lines she wore across her face. She wasn't going to be able to keep the marks she wore in remembrance of her dead family. Smellerbee then looked over at the sad pile of her clothes, all things given to her by Jet when she joined his band. _My family, my village, my fellow Freedom Fighters, Longshot, Jet, my father's sword, my armor, my facepaint, my name, my dignity…all gone. I have nothing left._

The first shot of cold water brought Smellerbee back to the here and now. While one girl worked the pump, the other pointed a long, nozzled hose at Smellerbee and the near constant stream of water forced the gradually cleaner girl to close her eyes. A few moments later, they had moved past her face and she was able to open her eyes just a fraction. Through the cold water and her own tears, she saw the red scar she had cut into herself. _No, not nothing, that is all I have left, and that's all I need. There is nothing now to get in my way, not even my own past. I'll kill Long Fang with my bare hands if I have to._

After her 'bath' was finished, the attendants threw Smellerbee a towel and a robe and she thanked them with a clearly insincere smile. The next step was a painful round of eyebrow plucking and finger/toe nail cleaning. This was followed by another hair washing, this time using some sweet smelling liquid that the attendants handled in a bamboo vial as if it was going to explode. They covered Smellerbee's face when they poured a small portion of it onto her head, and she felt it begin to burn just a few minutes after it was applied. To Smellerbee it felt like they had set her head ablaze as she dug her newly clipped fingernails into her palms until the pain passed. _What is that stuff_, Smellerbee thought eyeing the vial, _was it that root extract that Máo mentioned?_

When they were done, they pulled what hair they could into a bun at the back of her head, gave her a servant's dress, a pair of cheap sandals, another sealed note, pointed her in the direction of the palace and pushed her out the back door. Smellerbee shuffled forward the best she could in the strange garment she wore. The spa's note allowed her to pass effortlessly though the final remaining gates to the palace, the guards stationed there never gave Smellerbee a _first_ glance, dismissing her as just another nobody_. Have to keep my head down and not draw any attention_, _I'm Pìn Lù, impoverished servant girl now, not a danger to anyone_. Smellerbee didn't know what to make of the fact that she hadn't seen any Dai Li anywhere in the city, _is it just that they are good at hiding themselves, or is it only the idea of them being everywhere that people fear now?_

Once on the palace grounds, however, the sight of the massive structure, surrounded by gigantic statuary, gardens and temples caused Smellerbee to gape uncharacteristically. Despite what she had always been told about the home of the Earth King, nothing in her life in dense forests and squalid villages had prepared her for the fact that such a place could exist for the use of just one man.

Smellerbee walked down the central path, looking up at each of the dozens of tall stone pillars that lined the road, each with a unique stature of a previous Earth King. The palace itself loomed in the distance, and despite how large it looked from the gate, it only grew in size as she approached it. When she reached a small bridge that crossed the moat at the end of the path, she became the object of attention.

"You! Stop!"

A voice called out from behind Smellerbee, who froze on the spot. _Stupid! _She admonished herself_, gawking here like an idiot; you deserve to get killed if you're caught so easily._

"Where do you think you're going?"

_Ok, turn around and look down, give him the note and don't say anything, maybe he's just a regular guard. _Smellerbee turned and caught a glance at the guard before looking at the ground, _not a Dai Li, thankfully, but even if I was able to get away from him, it's a ten-minute run back to a heavily guarded gate. I've passed the point of no return and instead of noticing, I've been playing tourist. _Smellerbee pulled the note out from the belt on her gown and slowly raised it in front of her.

The guard snatched it with a grunt, and after flipping it over a few times and snorting, spoke again, "New server, huh? Did they not tell you where to go or are you too stupid to follow directions?"

Smellerbee wondered how fast her newly clipped nails could dig into this guard's neck, but instead shook her down turned head and said nothing.

"Mute, huh? Figures…alright, follow me."

The guard led Smellerbee over the moat, and before they reached the stairs to the main entrance, turned to the right, following the red wall of the palace. A long walk later, they reached a small arc of stones set into the wall, "Stop," the guard ordered. He then assumed a stance, stomped his right foot forward and moved his arms out then down. After a rumble, the portion of red wall inside the stone arc lowered into the ground, revealing a passageway.

As it moved down Smellerbee could see that this part of the wall was over two feet thick. _Now that is a big door_, she thought.

"Go inside."

Smellerbee did as she was told, and was immersed in darkness when the door was closed behind her. She took a few tentative steps forward as her eyes adjusted to the low light. Ahead of her she could see a bright blur from which the sounds of people yelling and porcelain clanging together could be heard. By the time she reached it, she could now see that the bright, noisy room was the massive kitchen of the palace. Over fifty people were crammed into it: cooks, servers, cleaners, all moving around each other in close quarters. There were of all ages and sizes, from boys younger then Smellerbee pushing brooms to old men endlessly stiffing sauces. Smellerbee stood in the doorway looking for some semblance of order, anybody in charge that she could report to avoid wandering aimlessly and creating a scene.

Unfortunately, no one else knew of her desire to remain unnoticed, "New girl!" one teenage boy chopping lettuce yelled.

"NEW GIRL!" the entire kitchen yelled, and began to laugh and bang together pots and pans in what looked like a traditional greeting, causing Smellerbee to blush with embarrassment.

"Quiet! Quiet! Everybody back to work, now!" A harried looking young man worked his way through the crowded kitchen, occasionally slapping people in the head along the way to get them to stop making noise and back to their duties. He approached Smellerbee and looked her over. She was uncomfortable at being sized up for the third time today, "You have all your fingers?" He asked.

Smellerbee, stunned by the odd question, held her palms up as if to make sure for herself.

"Okaayyyyy," The young man said in a patronizing tone, "Can you speak?"

Smellerbee opened her mouth to tell him where to stick his attitude, when the young man cut her off with a loud sigh, "Never mind, I don't care. _Dishes_." He said pointed at a long sink where four other people about her age were washing dishes. "_Wash_ the dishes, eat when _they_ eat," He swept his hand over the line of dishwashers, "and sleep when _they_ sleep. Got it?" With that, he turned and left.

Smellerbee approached the long sink and took an open spot near the end, not far from a beaded door that apparently lead out into the palace. In front of her was a deep basin full of filthy water, behind it was a counter where stacks of dishes and utensils sat. They were caked with the remnants of food and looked like they'd been there for days.

"The biggest pile of dishes is always near the door." An older boy standing next to Smellerbee with his arms elbow deep in the water said with a smile on his face, "So that's where the newbie's start!" He finished with a satisfaction that could only mean that it was once his job. Smellerbee ignored him rather then drive his face into the lip of the sink. She instead pulled back her sleeves and got to work.

Six hours later Smellerbee never felt so tired. Her hands were swollen and raw from hours of scrubbing underwater, and standing on the hard kitchen floor in her cheap sandals caused pain to streak up her back like lightning. Suddenly her fellow dishwashers, as if by hidden signal, stopped working, dried their hands and filed out with the rest of the kitchen staff thought a door on the far side of the kitchen. Smellerbee followed cautiously, at first thankful to be away from the sink, then relived to see that they were entering a large cafeteria room.

By the time Smellerbee reached the front of the serving line, the thin rice stew 'meal' was all but ice cold. She carried her bowl and a splinter of wood that was a poor excuse for a spoon to the back corner of the room and sat at the end of an empty table. She stretched out her back for a moment, trying to work out the kink that was left in it from hours hunched over the sink and thought, _this was a sought after job?_ Smellerbee poked at her dinner and took stock of what she had seen and heard in the kitchen. _This place is like a cross between and a military camp and a prison, _she hypothesized_, everyone had their duties and no one questioned them_. _There are chefs, assistant chefs, servers and cleaners like me, but only the servers ever leave the kitchen. Even then they are tasked to specific jobs, which means I might never get a chance to get where I need to go!_ Letting her anger get the best of her, Smellerbee pounded her fist on the table, attracting the wrong kind of attention.

"What's the matter new girl?" The older boy she worked next to all day called over from the table across from hers. "Had enough already? That was only a half day for you!" He and those sitting near him began to laugh.

_Ignore them_, she thought, _I'm not here for them_.

"I know!" He continued his taunting, "She must not be hungry, take her food." Another boy learned over and snatched the bowl out from under Smellerbee's face, causing the whole room to burst out in laughter. Smellerbee was barely able to contain her rage, and responded only by snapping her wooden spoon in half in her fist using her thumb.

It was then that the kitchen's boss stuck his head in and yelled, "Quiet, all of you! And you!" He pointed at Smellerbee, "That spoon is the property of the Earth King, and it's coming out of your pay. The rest of you," he pointed at the boys at the table across from her, "are washing tonight's dishes alone. Now everyone: eat, then sleep, then work. Got it?" He didn't wait for a response.

After the meal, the kitchen staff filed out into a long hallway that lead to several barracks style rooms. Smellerbee watched the crowed of people and stayed close to one young girl that she took note of hours earlier. _If I can't get out of the kitchen, I'm going to need a new job, hers._

It was three hours ago when the Smellerbee watched the kitchen boss look out a window and the yell a name: "Xiǎo! Time for the Grand Secretariat's tea!" Smellerbee looked up from her dishwashing to see a small girl take a tea tray out of the kitchen and presumably to Long Feng.

In the girls barracks room Smellerbee found an empty bunk and feigned sleep despite her exhaustion. As the room grew dark and the hours passed, she lay with her eyes open, focusing on keeping her mind blank and ready for what was to come.

When she felt that the first rays of sunlight were about to breach the narrow windows of the barracks room, Smellerbee slid silently out of her bed and over to where Xiǎo was sleeping peacefully. Without hesitation, Smellerbee clasped her hand over the young girl's mouth, who awake with a muffled start.

"Quiet!" Smellerbee whispered intently, "Listen to me, girl. You're about to be hurt, badly. However, it will be a lot worse if you reveal to anyone that it was anymore than an accident. Do you understand?" Tears started to well in eyes widened by fear, but she didn't respond in any other way. "It's the difference between walking out of here and being dragged out," Smellerbee continued, her voice carrying an edge, "Do you understand?"

Xiǎo shut her eyes tight squeezing out a pair of tears. Smellerbee with her free hand grabbed Xiǎo's right arm and with a quick motion and a wet snap, broke it over the wooden frame of her bunk bed. Xiǎo let out a gasp before passing out from the pain. Smellerbee carried her down off her upper bunk and laid her on the floor.

Smellerbee retuned to her own bunk just as the young servant girl awoke again and began to scream, waking the whole barracks. Soon older members of the kitchen staff arrived to take Xiǎo to a healer. On the way out Smellerbee caught the eye of the young girl and stared at her intently. The kitchen boss then decreed that since everyone was awake, they had better get to work.

Smellerbee retuned to her bunk to get her sandals. _She won't talk, I've never seen anyone that sacred_, she suddenly saw herself standing over Jet's body, and then remembered the look in Xiǎo's eyes. _I had to do it, _she thought, recalling the sound of the young girl whimpering_, no that's not true,_ _I chose to. _Smellerbee felt for the scar on her arm, reminding herself of her commitment, even as it began to falter_Guilt and a night without sleep won't make this any easier_, Smellerbee thought as the new day's work began.

Seven hours in Smellerbee took her swollen hands out of the filthy water to shake the water off, and the blood out, of them. She looked around the kitchen at all of the faces focused on their work. _I can't imagine doing this for weeks, let alone years_, she thought_, but these people have no choice, they have nowhere else to go. That sounds familiar…I'm I that different?_ Smellerbee felt hollow at that realization. _I could…stay here as Pìn Lù. It's not a great life, but there's food, and a warm place to sleep, they are even apparently going to pay me._

"Xiǎo! Time for the Grand Secretariat's tea!" The kitchen boss yelled.

_Long Feng_, Smellerbee thought, sliding the long knife she had left resting at the bottom of the sink all day up her sleeve, _Long Feng comes first._

"She's hurt!" Another voice called out.

"I'll do it!" Smellerbee yelled seizing her moment, dashing away from the sink and up to the boss. She stopped short of the boss and kept her head down respectful, "Please sir, I can do it." Smellerbee stared at the floor, but wished she could see out the top of her head for any sign that the boss was going to go for it. _I'm taking too big a risk, _she thought_, but it has to be now, if Xiǎo ever lets the truth slip, I've had it._

"Who are you? I don't care," the boss sighed, answering his own question, "take this tray, this tray, LOOK AND PAY ATTENTION!" he snapped, Smellerbee glanced at the tea tray that featured just a steaming tea pot and a cup with a lid, and then looked up at the boss, "go out that door and take your first right. That's _this_ way." The boss exemplified by poking Smellerbee hard in the right shoulder. "Then the second left and go in the first door. Put the tea on the desk and come right back here. Got it?"

"Yes, sir," Smellerbee replied, sounding as meek as she could.

"Then go, the tea's not getting any hotter."

Smellerbee pulled the tray off the counter and slid the kitchen knife underneath, holding it under the tray. She shuffled out of the kitchen and into the palace proper.

The long, green halls of the palace were quieter then Smellerbee expected them to be, her soft footsteps were the only sound she could hear. _With the amount of food going out of the kitchen, I thought there would be more people_. Smellerbee slowed as she made her first turn, careful not to spill a drop or collide with anyone. Her caution paid off at the next intersection where she nearly ran into the only other people she'd seen so far. Two Earth Kingdom guards in long green battle dresses escorting a red-haired girl dressed as a prisoner nearly ran her down. _A Fire Nation witch, no doubt_, Smellerbee thought, sneering at the prisoner, her own heart pounding as she got closer to Long Feng, _I hope she gets what she deserves too._

Just outside of the door to Long Feng's office, Smellerbee collected herself. _Just go in and put the tea down, if the moment presents itself, strike. _Smellerbee propped the tray up with her knee and gently rapped on the door.

"Come in," Long Feng's voice called, sending a chill up Smellerbee's spine. She slid open the door and took in the small room. There was a long desk lit by an oil lamp, a small cabinet and nothing else but stacks of scrolls and books. Smellerbee focused on not staring at the object of her revenge, Long Feng, who never looked up from what he as reading, and slid the tray onto an empty corner of its surface, sliding the knife back into the palm of her hand, and closing the door with her foot "Right there is fine, thank you Smellerbee."

Smellerbee's head snapped up at the sound of her name and ignoring her concern at being found out, dove at Long Feng, knife first. The Grand Secretariat of Ba Sing Se stomped his foot under his desk and a slab of stone caught Smellerbee in the chest. He then pushed his hand out at her, palm open, and the stone slid back, pinning Smellerbee against the wall from her feet to her shoulders.

Smellerbee gasped for breath and flipped the knife around in her hand, and while holding it by the point, whipped it at Long Feng's head. The head of the Dai Li lifted the lid from his teacup and used it to deflect the blade harmlessly.

Smellerbee struggled to get out from behind the stone, but Long Feng gave it another push, and she felt her chest compress to the point where she could hardly draw a breath, "Stop struggling, child," he said, "it's over."

"You bastard, I…" Smellerbee wheezed.

"Quiet now," he said calmly; slumping back in his chair uncharacteristically and taking a sip of his tea. It was then that she noticed that he was disheveled in his appearance. With his clothes wrinkled and his hair out of place, he looked like he'd not slept in days. "You know I convinced myself I would never see any of you children again, yet here you are, bent on revenge and most likely oblivious to the bigger picture." Long Feng rubbed his forehead, "But then it is _you_ Smellerbee, so I'll wager that you're _not_ here to save the world," Long Feng chuckled to himself gloomily, "You are here about the boy I killed."

"His name was Jet!" Smellerbee shouted, the effort almost causing her to black out.

"I remember him, I think about him often in light of recent events. There was a time when he and I weren't much different. I too came from nothing. I worked hard, gained entrance to Ba Sing Se University, but before I could go out into the world I was 'given' the 'opportunity of a lifetime'," he intoned bitterly, "the job of tutor to the next Earth King. _Tutor_," Long Fang harrumphed, taking another sip of his tea, "more like _zookeeper_. Since no one says no to royalty, I was stuck playing wet-nurse for decades. All I wanted was control over my own life!"

_What is he doing_, Smellerbee thought, _confessing? I'd almost rather he just killed me._

"Then _they_ showed up, the Dai Li. They wanted to control this king and they needed me to do it. I played along, and since they needed me more then I needed them, it wasn't long before I was running the Dai Li and this city, and control was at last mine. Until now. Now it's all over and it is entirely that boy's fault. Not the Avatar, not the Fire Lord or his scheming children," he muttered under his breath, "not even the Earth King. It was Jet. That's when it stared to fall apart, when I lost control."

"HE'S DEAD!" Smellerbee yelled, exasperated at Long Feng's sorrowful admissions.

"I didn't have a choice! I had to do it!" He yelled back.

"I LOVED HIM!" Smellerbee yelled again, surprising herself with her admission.

"And I killed him! A child! I didn't want this, all I wanted was order, and now a child is dead, and another is here to try and kill me!"

"…not try." Smellerbee open her left hand and let an empty bamboo vial drop onto the ground.

Long Feng stared down at it and then over to his now empty teacup, "You…" was all he could say as he then clutched at his stomach and fell off his chair. As he struggled with the pain the toxin caused him, he pushed forward with his free hand, trying to crush his killer.

Smellerbee pushed back on the stone with all of her might, bracing her elbows against the wall, holding it back until Long Feng died and the crushing rock reverted into an inanimate slab of stone. Without his bending to hold it up, she was soon able to topple it backwards and free herself. She collapsed to the ground next to the dead man, stared into his glassy, vacant eyes and tried to catch her breath.

_I…killed him Jet, he's dead. _She thought_, I did it for you, and I'm sorry. _Smellerbee squeezed her eyes shut and pushed out tears for another part of her life ending. A moment later, she pushed herself up to one knee and wiped her face with her sleeve, _I have to get out of here._

Smellerbee slid out of the room and closed the door behind her. She made her way back towards the kitchen using the same path, _even though no one's around, no use in calling any attention to myself yet_. When she reached the last turn to reach the kitchen, Smellerbee continued walking straight, now at an increased pace. At the end of a long corridor, she found what she was looking for: a narrow window looking out outside the palace.

Not much more then an arrow slit, Smellerbee squeezed her thin frame through. Faced with a long drop, she dangled down with one hand on the sill and dropped as gently as she could on to the flat stones below. Smellerbee pressed against the wall and checked to see if anyone saw her descent. Once sure she was in the clear, she casually walked away from the wall and towards the moat.

_The moat water has to come from somewhere, _she thought_, and if that means another trip over the waterfall, then so be it. I have to get out of here, not just get away; I want to be rid of this city, this war, and anyone who's ever heard of either. I'm finished._

It was then that Smellerbee noticed that her path had become more difficult. The stones under her feet were starting to slide and sink under her weight. One step more and the stones gave way under her, trapping her right foot into the sand below up to the ankle. Shocked, Smellerbee tugged at her leg with both hands, then looked back to see that her other foot was sinking as well. Caught mid-stride and off balance, she steadied herself with her hands and instantly realized her mistake. Now with her hands trapped in the ground as well, she felt herself being pulled underground, and in a moment she was completely submerged.

Darkness and silence were the only sensations Smellerbee could feel as the warm sand pressed into her from all sides. Unable to move, breathe, or scream, she slipped into unconsciousness.

**Eight Weeks Before Cometfall**

The kid awoke at the bottom of the steep stairs to find the house above much quieter then she remembered. _There was a battle, _she thought, dizzy from her involuntary sleep_, is it over?_ The kid climbed the stairs and pushed against the hatch, but found it blocked by some weight. Bracing herself and taking a deep breath, she pushed again, hard enough to dislodge whatever was lying on top of the hatch and opening it.

The kid moved up into what was once her home, now a burned out husk. Remembering that her mother was there before, she turned around to see her laying face down next to the hatch. Her fallen body had hidden its door. One of her older brothers lay nearby, a gaping hole in his chest, their family sword in one hand. The red gem in its hilt gleamed in the same shade as the pools of blood that surrounded it.

_It's mine now_, she thought, numbed by the carnage surrounding her. She pulled it out of the grip of her dead brother and struggled to hold its weight with one small hand. The kid walked out of her village and into the forest.

Smellerbee awoke to find that she was alive and could breathe, but that she still could not move. She was restrained in a stone chair by bands of rocks at her ankles, waist, wrists and forehead in a damp stone room that was lit by an eerie green light that emanated from translucent stones in the wall. _The Dai Li, _she thought_, they caught up to me, but it's too late for their leader, _she smiled in spite of herself and her situation.

"Ah, she's awake!" A voice echoed outside the cell door, "Let's have a look, shall we?" The stone door slid down into ground, flush with the floor. A large man in Dai Li robes stepped in. Smellerbee couldn't make out who it was until he stood in the light.

"You?" She said in shock at seeing the works office manager standing in front of her.

"Yes, child it is me," Gū Bǎn replied, "and I can't tell you how happy I am to see you again. Some…well, _most_ of the others, really, thought that you were a waste of time, but I saw something else, something that made you special, and all you needed was a slight push in the right direction to help you accomplish our shared agenda."

Smellerbee had past the point of trying to hide her frustration. "Agenda? What you talking about! Let me out of here!"

"We'll come to that, but first I think we owe you an explanation," Gū Bǎn's voice was much more sinister and carried a harder edge then the last time Smellerbee spoke to him, "You see, Long Feng had become an embarrassment to us. His attempted coup was a _spectacular_ failure; his choice of allies was poor to say the least, and finally, his loss of control over the Earth King was unacceptable. He needed to…_go_. Unfortunately, he still had the loyalty of many of our top operatives as well as a high public profile, so you were chosen to be our instrument."

"I would never do anything to help the Dai Li!" Smellerbee yelled, frustrated.

"Not consciously, of course, but help you did, and so did we. One tiny push from me and off you went! I have to say that I'm quite proud!" Gū Bǎn stared to laugh.

Smellerbee was staring to get scared, the Dai Li had been on to her from the beginning, watching her, and even helping her kill Long Feng, their leader. "What are you going to do with me?"

"Ah, that's been the subject of some debate. Most think it would be better if you just disappeared…we could just wall you up right now." Smellerbee's blood went cold. "But I think you could be of some use yet. You have a strong will and a killer's instinct." Gū Bǎn turned around and stared off into space, "The Dai Li is going to change soon, and we'll need smart, talented people who can get their hands dirty. People like you."

"Your out of your mind, I'll never work for the Dai Li!" Smellerbee pulled against her bonds, trying to escape this madness.

"Don't try and get away; don't forget that you killed the Grand Secretariat. You're the Earth Kingdom's most wanted criminal. You'll only be caught and brought back here," Smellerbee stopped struggling and gazed at Gū Bǎn with hate in her eyes. "Child, you don't have much of a choice, you can either die here, slowly and painfully, or join us. That will be the second favor I've done for you. I've become generous in my old age, haven't I?" Gū Bǎn began to laugh, and left the cell, closing the door behind him, "It's up to you," he voice came, softened by the wall of stone between them, "but I insist that you not make up your mind right away. I'll be back later for your decision, let's say a couple of months."

With that, the stones holding Smellerbee to the chair fell away and she held her head in her hands and began to cry. _Jet…_


End file.
